TECO Line Streetcar System

TECO Line Streetcar System
A TECO streetcar picking up passengers in Ybor City
Overview
Type	Heritage streetcar
System	HART
Status	Operational
Locale	Tampa, Florida
Termini	Whiting Station Centennial Park Station
Stations	11
Services	1
Daily ridership	783
Website	TECO Line Streetcar System
Operation
Opened	October 19, 2002
Owner	City of Tampa
Operator(s)	HART
Character	At-grade
Rolling stock	Birney
Technical
Line length	2.7 mi (4.35 km)
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Electrification	Overhead lines
Route diagram Centennial Park Tampa Bay FCU Streetcar Society Cadrecha Plaza Operations and Maintenance Center CSX Tampa Line Silver Star Lee Roy Selmon Expressway Port Authority York Street Cumberland Avenue The Tampa Tribune HSBC Dick Greco Plaza Lee Roy Selmon Expressway Whiting This diagram:

The TECO Line Streetcar System is a heritage streetcar transit line in Tampa, Florida, run by the Hillsborough Area Regional Transportation Authority, owned by the city of Tampa, and managed by Tampa Historic Streetcar, Inc. It connects Downtown and Channelside to the historic Ybor City district. There is also an "In-Town" trolley-replica bus system that connects Downtown, Channelside, and Harbour Island.

The line opened on October 19, 2002, and is 2.7 mi (4.35 km) long with 11 stations. The system is single-track with several passing sidings, which mostly follows a reserved right-of-way at a cost of 13.7 million per mile. Ten replica historic streetcars and one restored historic streetcar are used on the line. The replica cars themselves cost $600,000 each. The annual insurance cost of the line is $400,000 with most of that cost being a requirement by CSX Transportation for insurance to cross over their freight tracks near the intersection of 5th Avenue and 13th Street.

Tampa's first electric streetcars were introduced in 1892. Streetcars in Tampa reached their peak of popularity in the 1920s, with almost 24 million passengers carried in 1926. The first line shut down on August 4, 1946. The first streetcar system used the Birney Safety Car and, probably, other streetcar types.

Streetcars returned to Tampa in 2002, when the initial 2.4 mi (3.86 km) longheritage line was opened. Its operating costs are financed through a "Special tax assessment" (.33 per thousand) on businesses in the streetcar district and a streetcar endowment stemming from settlement money received in 2006 by the city for the demolition of the Harbor Island People Mover.

In its first year of operation, the streetcar carried 420,000 riders, 20% more than projected. In 2005, 434,498 passengers used the streetcar. In 2011, Streetcar ridership from October 2011 through May decreased by 8.3 percent to 265,148 with a total for the year of 358,737 riders. In 2015, the streetcar served 285,900 passengers.