Not that it's a bad thing.  After all, CSX has to make a living and has that right.  But darned be darned if it isn't interesting enough to point out that when you look at the spread of CSX's rail between Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties, it certainly enjoys first dibs on what would work out so beautifully as an urban rail system.  Their system touches the beaches of Clearwater (okay, to within some blocks anyway), to E. Polk Street in downtown Tampa - and a hundred worthy places in between and beyond.   It should have been our light rail system. 

And actually, it is vision anyway that some parts of it really are.  Particularly the part of the Hartrail plan that connects USF and Ybor.

I took this shot leaving the Old Tampa Theater a few weeks ago.  They are CSX tracks running down through East Polk Street in downtown Tampa.  If you really want to see what I mean, use this Google map below to "follow" the CSX trackage.  You'll see what I'm talking about soon enough.



These could be light rail tracks transporting Tampa and Hillsborough residents to and from work each day

You can use the map below to navigate around and follow CSX trackage.  Take it out of satellite view if it helps. The map is centered over E. Polk Street in downtown Tampa but you'll need to zoom in a couple times to notice that at first. For those of you new to Google mapping, you can click on the map and move it around directly.  Update 02/09/10: Google map embed has been removed from this posting.