Tampa Chamber Tours New Light Rail System In Phoenix

Members of the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce toured the new light rail system in Phoenix to better understand the potential impact of a proposed similar new system in Tampa, ABC Action News reporter Brendan McLaughlin reports.

Ridership in Phoenix far surpasses initial expectations as the light rail system becomes increasingly popular transportation for university students and downtown workers. Some 40,000 people per day ride the Phoenix trains.

In Tampa, the first legs of a proposed light rail system would connect the downtown business district with the University of South Florida and neighborhoods in North Tampa as well as to Tampa International Airport (TIA).

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Read more articles by Diane Egner.

Diane Egner is a community leader and award-winning journalist with more than four decades of experience reporting and writing about the Tampa Bay Area of Florida. She serves on the boards of the University of South Florida Zimmerman School of Advertising & Mass Communications Advisory Council, The Institute for Research in Art (Graphicstudio, the Contemporary Art Museum, and USF’s Public Art Program) Community Advisory Council, Sing Out and Read, and StageWorks Theatre Advisory Council. She also is a member of Leadership Florida and the Athena Society. A graduate of the University of Minnesota with a BA in journalism, she won the top statewide award for editorial writing from the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors while at The Tampa Tribune and received special recognition by the Tampa Bay Association of Black Journalists for creative work as Content Director at WUSF Public Media. Past accomplishments and community service include leadership positions with Tampa Tiger Bay Club, USF Women in Leadership & Philanthropy (WLP), Alpha House of Tampa Bay, Awesome Tampa Bay, Florida Kinship Center, AIA Tampa Bay, Powerstories, Arts Council of Hillsborough County, and the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce. Diane and her husband, Sandy Rief, live in Tampa.