Harbor Island People Mover
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Owner | Beneficial Corporation |
| Locale | Tampa, FL, USA |
| Transit type | People mover |
| Number of lines | 1 |
| Number of stations | 2 |
| Operation | |
| Began operation | June 27, 1985 |
| Ended operation | January 16, 1999 |
| Operator(s) | HARTline |
| Technical | |
| System length | 2,500 feet (760 m) |
| Track gauge | Concrete guideway |
The Harbour Island People Mover was an automated guideway transit people mover service used to carry visitors between Downtown Tampa and Harbour Island across the Garrison Channel in Tampa, Florida, United States. Privately owned but operated by the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority (HART), service commenced on June 27, 1985. Due to low ridership and operating losses, the service was discontinued on January 16, 1999. The money given to the city for the closure of the system in a settlement with ownership served as the foundation of an endowment to cover the operating expenses of the TECO Line Streetcar System.
Developed by the Beneficial Corporation and utilizing Otis Transportation Systems, the people mover was completed at a cost of $7 million. The 2,500-foot (760 m) concrete guideway was elevated and spanned the Garrison Channel. Operating between 7:00 a.m. and 2:00 a.m, the Harbour Island People Mover made approximately 620 trips per day with a maximum capacity of 100 passengers per trip. The system ran in a north–south direction between the downtown station located on the third level of the Old Fort Brooke parking garage and its southern terminus at the Shops of Harbour Island on Harbour Island.
Ground was broken for the project on September 20, 1983, as a part of the greater Harbour Island development project undertaken by Beneficial Corporation and its chief executive Finn M. W. Caspersen (1941-2009). When the Harbour Island People Mover opened for service on June 27, 1985, it marked the return of rail transit to Tampa since the closure of its streetcar network in 1946. Costing $7 million to complete, former President Gerald Ford took part in the inaugural ride. Although it opened to much fanfare, ridership of the system remained relatively low. By 1989, ridership averaged 1,200 riders on a weekday and 1,500 on the weekend or for an average of about 2 riders per trip. The low ridership was attributed to the perceived difficulty in accessing the downtown station and the addition of a lunch-time shuttle bus service between downtown and Harbour Island by January 1989.
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