Jacksonville Skyway People Mover

Описание к видео Jacksonville Skyway People Mover

I spent a little time in downtown Jacksonville to check out their people mover system called Skyway. We'll see the little trains/trams arriving and departing at stations in a few clips, as well as some clips inside with good views of the downtown skyline and a freight train as we cross the St. Johns River on the Acosta Bridge.

The Skyway was built in 1989 and had some small expansions throughout the years. It's free to use, fully automated, fully elevated above streets, and it runs at a 10-minute frequency. However, the system is only 2.5 miles long, so it's not very useful for people, and as a result it has performed far below ridership projections. The future of the Skyway is up in the air, and from what I've read there's a proposal to convert it for use by autonomous cars that would use the elevated guideway as well as surface streets. Whether that proposal actually comes to fruition is anybody's guess, but like the original plan for the Skyway it may look good on paper but it won't transfer over to reality.

For any viewers from the Minneapolis/St. Paul region you may find it interesting to know that at the time the people mover was being proposed in Jacksonville there was also a plan to build one in downtown St. Paul. In fact one of the buildings in downtown, specifically what is now the UBS Financial Services building, was designed to fit a future elevated people mover station. St. Paul's people mover was cancelled, and considering the lack of success of the people mover in Jacksonville it was probably for the best.

With all that said if you ever find yourself in downtown Jacksonville I recommend trying the Skyway just for the fun of it!

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