Policy Framework - Jacksonville Transportation Authority

City of Jacksonville
Policy Framework for Transit-Oriented Development
Can TOD Really Be Effective in
Jacksonville?
In a word, yes. Jacksonville actually has a long history
as a thriving transit city. Trains and street railroads
played an integral part in the city’s early development.
Jacksonville’s first train station opened in 1858, and
as the city grew, so did its rail infrastructure. Boasting
one of the best natural harbors in the Southeast,
Jacksonville quickly became an important destination
for people and goods from around Florida, the South,
and the East Coast. At the peak of the railroad era in
Jacksonville, the City’s rail terminal (now the Prime
Osborne Convention Center) could accommodate
more than 200 trains per day and served as many as
100,000 passengers per day.
At that time, local street railroads were the primary
means of connecting Jacksonville’s urban and
suburban neighborhoods. The first streetcars were
powered by mules and horses, but by 1895 the city’s
streetcar fleet was entirely electric. At its pinnacle,
the Jacksonville street railway network extended over
59 miles of track, served by 101 passenger cars. The
streetcars were largely responsible for Jacksonville’s
earliest suburban developments: Riverside,
Springfield, Avondale, Ortega, Murray Hill, San
Marco, and Fairfield were all “streetcar suburbs”
oriented to the popular transit service.
The Riverside Avenue street car line radiating out of
downtown (upper right corner) gives rise to ‘streetcar
neighborhoods.’ Close up from a 1893 map of Jacksonville
by Augustus Koch, US Library of Congress archives.
San Marco Main Street, Jacksonville
Springfield, Jacksonville
14 | What is Required to Make TOD Work