Tampa trolley troubles

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

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The streetcar system lost $2.1 million in 2004.

During a joint meeting Tuesday, the HARTline and streetcar boards decided Tampa's streetcar system should remain in HARTline's hands.

Hillsborough County Regional Transit Authority members voted to rescind an earlier resolution that called for the streetcar board to issue a request for proposals for private companies to run the system.

Hillsborough County commissioners Ronda Storms and Brian Blair, who sit on the HARTline board, led the charge for HARTline to give up operations of the struggling downtown streetcar, but their colleagues disagreed.

Storms expressed disappointment that HARTline won't open up the bid process for operation of the streetcar.

"I reminded the board that that's what you do," Storms said. "You save taxpayer money by letting businesses bid on this."

The streetcar system suffered a $2.1 million operating loss in 2004.

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