AD HOC TRANSPORTATION COMMITTEE EXPANDS TO THREE COUNTIES

The issue of regional transportation in the Tampa Bay area has been a thorny one for years. Hillsborough County's legislative delegation has for years had an ad hoc committee to look at it's own transportation issues, but now they have decided to look ahead.

In his political column Monday, the Lakeland Ledger's Bill Rufty reported that at it's meeting last week, the committee decided to expand it's focus from just Hillsborough County to include the neighbouring areas of Pinellas, Pasco, and Polk. State Representative Dennis Ross (R - Lakeland) has been asked to join the group from Polk County.

Rufty remembers that in the not too distant past, "Public transportation, especially between Tampa and Lakeland, has been a decades-long dream for many. Former Hillsborough County Commissioner Ed Turanchik tried on several occasions to drum up interest for a Lakeland-to-Tampa commuter rail with a stop in Plant City."

One day...one day...