"Past & Present Rail of Jacksonville"
A Jacksonville Transportation Authority (JTA) "Skyway" Monorail train nears the Jacksonville Regional Transportation Center at LaVilla in Downtown Jacksonville, Florida on the cloudy morning of February 17th, 2023. Seen below in the background is the Atlantic Coast Line "Orange Blossom Special" railcar which sits in front of the Prime F. Osborn III Convention Center, formerly known as Flagler Depot.
The Jacksonville Skyway is a 2.5 mile, 8 station, automated monorail serving the Downtown Jacksonville, Florida area. The Skyway first opened in 1989 as a rubber tire people mover, but was converted to its current Bombardier UMIII Monorail technology in the mid 1990s. With JTA's "shared autonomous vehicle" Ultimate Urban Circulator (U2C) project currently underway, the monorail is on borrowed time. At the date of this post, a majority of the aging 10-vehicle fleet sits out of commission. Only one two-car vehicle runs throughout the day covering both of the system's lines. This has increased the Skyway's headways from 4-8 minutes to 20-25 minutes, drastically reducing the monorail's reliability.