(rshsdepot) Jacksonville, FL

["Bernie Wagenblast" <brwagenblast_@_home.com>]

This story notes the former Jacksonville Terminal Station, which
now serves as the Prime Osborn Convention Center.  You can view a
couple of current photos of the interior of the station at:
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/082701/met_7050460.
html


Greyhound not a good fit in joint hub plan
Too much in one spot could serve to deter conventioneers


By David Bauerlein
Times-Union staff writer

The ticket windows in historic Jacksonville Terminal, now a part
of the Prime Osborn Convention Center, might regain their
original use if Amtrak moves its station downtown.

But Greyhound passengers won't be catching the bus at the
convention center. The latest, revised plan for building the
Jacksonville Transportation Center would put Greyhound a couple
of blocks away from the convention center, not inside it.

The shift is part of a study that is charting a way to bring
multiple means of travel -- train, bus, car, the Skyway monorail
and perhaps someday light rail -- together in a compact area
where people can easily switch from one kind of transportation to
another.

"I think the timing for it has never been better," said City
Councilwoman Elaine Brown, who has championed the proposal since
1993, when former Mayor Ed Austin asked her to serve on a citizen
committee about moving the Amtrak station to downtown.

But incorporating transit into the convention center runs the
risk of turning off conventioneers when they compare Jacksonville
to other cities in the hyper-competitive convention business.

"I do think there is a way to do it, but the way is very narrow,"
said Kitty Ratcliffe, president of Jacksonville and the Beaches
Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The state Department of Transportation previously has estimated
it would cost $56 million to move both Amtrak and Greyhound to
the convention center, a steep sum that would require a
combination of state, federal and local funding. State officials
don't have an updated estimate for what it would cost in the
revised site plan where Greyhound isn't in the convention center.
Amtrak is the most costly portion because it would require
extensive work on the Florida East Coast Railroad tracks that run
along the convention center.

The Jacksonville Terminal station opened in 1919, and its vaulted
ceiling, high as a cathedral's, is a reminder of the era when the
city was a major destination for tourists traveling to Florida by
rail. At its peak, up to 20,000 people and 142 trains passed
through the station daily, according to a historical marker at
the convention center. In Brown's office at City Hall, a framed
picture on the wall shows a black-and-white shot of the station
with the parking lot full of Model-T cars and a streetcar running
past it.

Amtrak doesn't generate nearly as much ridership in an era of
airplane travel, but Brown notes that Amtrak is seeking to open a
Jacksonville to Miami route down the Florida coast, including
stops at St. Augustine and Daytona Beach. Ultimately, Brown said
Jacksonville must plan for other kinds of travel besides the
automobile as the city grows and roads fill up with cars.

The latest site plan for the transportation center comes a year
after the state transportation department showed plansat a June
2000 public hearing that showed both Amtrak and Greyhound with
stations in the convention center.

Since then, Greyhound has decided it needs more room than the
previous plan would have allowed in the convention center, and
state historic preservation officials raised concerns about all
the buses with their exhaust operating so close to the old
station, said Craig Teal, project manager for the transportation
department.

Tourism officials also have raised red flags about having too
much transit activity in the Prime Osborn. In a convention center
analysis for the visitors bureau, Strategic Advisory Group met
with convention planners for state and national groups and asked,
among other things, whether a transportation center in the
building would make them less likely to book conventions in
Jacksonville.

"The bottom line is that multimodal [transit operations] and a
convention center don't mix," said Jeff Sachs, managing partner
for Strategic Advisory Group. "People who are coming in from out
of town want to feel safe and kind of want to feel like an
'island.' All of a sudden you have a multimodal and you have all
the people who are locally based and it's kind of like oil and
water."

But, if only the Amtrak station were in the convention center,
that might change how convention planners react and it would be
worthwhile to show them the latest proposal, he said.

"If that's still an issue for too high a percentage, don't do
it," he said. "I don't want to throw out any idea. This could
really be a unique feature for Jacksonville in the end."

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