Board on and off Tampa, Florida/Carlos Pueblo

Board on and off Tampa, Florida/Carlos Pueblo

Board on and off Tampa, Florida is an art and patience. I am very frugal

and don’t like to take taxi or shuttle bus if not necessary. I did call Tampa

mass transportation authority to request the information of bus from the

airport to the cruise terminal in vein, instead, the MTA personnel asked

me to call the call the airport. I didn’t get any phone number in the airport

to call to. I was confident because that one time I did take two buses to

reach the cruise terminal which was closed to a convention center.

I asked the airport information center for guidance to buses to the terminal.

The lady pointed to a shuttle bus service stop outside of a red elevator. I

knew that was a place for shuttle bus to gather enough passengers to the

terminal for a fee of $12, if it was on the way back $8 per person. I had had

almost 10 hours to get to the terminal and the bus fare is $2 one way. I admit

that I am very cheap. I saw a sign inside the airport about public transportation

on the fourth floor and when I exited there was two buses and several passengers

waiting to board. The bus driver was on his break. It was Route 30 directly to

downtown Tampa and he promised to show me where to get off and walk to the

cruise terminal. After some walking, I saw the cruise ship standing on the pier

that I was sure not to miss it.

After disembark at the terminal, it was in heavy raining outside. There were no

$8 shuttle vans available. I kept asking people which way to the bus stop of Route

30 to the international airport. Most of the employee at the terminal had no idea

of what I was talking about and finally, I was instructed by a mono light rail driver

to take another electrical train toward another direction to downtown. The light

rail is free of charge. We reached to the end and was in the middle of a downtown

section. The driver was not quite sure where to find the bust stop yet did find the

Route 30 on the map. I kept on reading the big map posted on the street and finally

found the route and the stop right across the intersection of two streets.

One time, Houston MTA changed an express route from downtown Houston to

IAH due to economic reason that bus was a losing money business. Someone told

me that the MTA still need to maintain the airport route due to the reasonable way

for airport employee to get on and off work. The route must keep open as late as

possible and that makes sense. Overall, I find the public transportation in Tampa is

a super one among all ports which I have bee through.