JTA Skyway in Jacksonville, Florida

The Skyway is a free, automated, elevated monorail that runs 2.5 miles through Downtown Jacksonville and across the St. Johns River to San Marco.

The Jacksonville Transportation Authority Skyway page describes it as a 2.5-mile long, elevated monorail system with eight stations, and states that the Skyway is a complimentary service with no charge. Bicycles ride along as space permits, also at no cost. The same page now carries a notice that Skyway operations will be pausing on November 2, 2026.

The Skyway belongs to the JTA, not to the City of Jacksonville. The authority describes itself in its September 17, 2026 release as an independent state agency whose services include bus rapid transit, NAVI autonomous shuttles, paratransit, the St. Johns River Ferry and the Skyway APM, short for automated people mover. The tracks run approximately 2.5 miles in each direction on bi-directional guideway, according to the JTA U2C program page.

Five Skyway stations stand on the Downtown Northbank and three on the Southbank in San Marco.

Station locations come from the JTA Skyway page, which also notes a JTA Park-n-Ride lot at Jefferson Station and inexpensive Park-n-Ride facilities at Kings Avenue for commuters and visitors. Monthly parking passes and metered parking there are handled by Elite Parking at (904) 297-4437, per the same page. LaVilla Station sits at the Jacksonville Regional Transportation Center, the JTA hub from which the elevated line launches according to the U2C program page.

The posted schedule as of October 18, 2026, is Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., with weekends for special events only. Trains arrive every 4 minutes in the peaks of 7 to 9 a.m. and 4 to 7 p.m., and every 8 minutes off-peak, per the Skyway page. The JTA's own pages disagree on hours: the Skyway Policy for Extended Hours still lists regular hours of 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays. The main Skyway page is the more specific of the two, so riders should plan on 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. until the pause.

A federal grant in 1985 paid to start the Skyway, and the line grew in stages from 1989 to 1998.

The JTA history timeline records that in 1985 the JTA received more than $23 million from the Urban Mass Transportation Administration to build what was then called the Automated Skyway Express. The Skyway starter line, spanning seven-tenths of a mile, began operations in 1989, the same year the Dames Point Bridge opened. In 1998 service opened between the Hemming Plaza and FCCJ Skyway stations on the Northbank and across the Acosta Bridge to San Marco, giving the line its present reach.

The timeline marks the Skyway's busiest moments by event. During the four-day Super Bowl event in 2005, the JTA provided more than 450,000 trips on its Stadium Shuttle and Skyway services. In 2013 the Skyway reached a one-million trip milestone and the JTA started a Bikes on Skyway pilot program. In 2014 the JTA wrapped its first Skyway train with artwork, and the Skyway carried 90,177 trips during the One Spark crowd-funding festival. In 2017, in a partnership with the Cultural Council, public art was installed on the Skyway columns along Hogan and Bay streets, and the Skyway celebrated its 30-year anniversary in 2019, per the same JTA timeline.

The JTA says the Skyway system is over 35 years old and runs on its last two remaining vehicles.

The U2C Phase II study page states that the current Skyway system is over 35 years old and requires modernization to continue serving Jacksonville. Its No Build option describes keeping the Skyway operating as it does today with the last two remaining vehicles, with required track repairs to maintain basic service for as long as possible, at a planning level cost estimate of $15 million. The same page describes the existing system as reaching end of life.

A full fleet would mean rebuilding or buying trains. Alternative 1 on the study page would return to a rehabilitated fleet of up to 10 cars with a new automated train control system, at a planning level cost estimate of $276 million, while Alternative 2 would replace the system with new automated people mover trains comparable to those at U.S. airports, plus a new Brooklyn Station, for $428 million. The study covers the full 2.5-mile extent of the current Skyway plus a 200-foot buffer from the centerline of the guideway.

The JTA is pausing the Skyway on November 2, 2026, as one of the service cuts meant to close a $39 million budget shortfall.

The JTA's September 17, 2026 release put expenses in the budget year ending September 30 at $178 million and projected revenues for the year beginning October 1 at $139 million. The cuts it listed include ending professional services and other contracts to save about $25 million, eliminating 44 administrative positions and up to 150 operations positions, pausing Skyway operations on November 2, and pausing NAVI operations on December 31. Fixed-route buses generally move to a Saturday-level schedule on weekdays, with no changes to paratransit.

Interim Chief Executive Officer Cleveland Ferguson III, appointed the month before the release, said the decisions were necessary to restore the JTA's financial stability. The release calls the change a pause, and the Skyway page uses the same word; neither announces removal of the columns, the guideway over the Acosta Bridge or the stations. The NAVI page likewise posts that NAVI operations will be pausing on December 31, 2026.

The JTA's U2C Phase II study is weighing six build alternatives and a No Build option for the Skyway, with planning level costs from $15 million to $565 million.

Options and estimates are from the U2C Phase II study page, which says a Preferred Alternative will go to the JTA Board. In a May 4, 2026 release, the JTA ranked public feedback from most to least supported as Alternative 5, then 2, 3, 1, No Build, and Alternative 4 last, postponed the second round of meetings from May 11 to 14 to this fall, and said it would add more traditional transit alternatives to its review. The study page still lists a PD&E completion date of August 2026, a date that has passed without a posted decision.

U2C is the JTA's program to bring autonomous vehicles into its system. Phase 1, the Bay Street Innovation Corridor, became the NAVI service; the U2C page describes it as approximately three miles along Bay Street from Pearl Street to EverBank Stadium, while the NAVI page calls it a 3.5-mile route with 12 stops, so the two JTA pages differ on length. The U2C page lists Local Option Gas Tax dedicated funding for Skyway Rehabilitation and Downtown Service Expansion of $240,075,000 for capital and $6,765,000 for fleet. The 2017 move of U2C into its development phase and the 2018 award of a $12.5 million federal BUILD grant for the Bay Street Innovation Corridor both appear on the JTA timeline.

Last verified: October 18, 2026, by re-reading the JTA Skyway, NAVI, U2C and U2C Phase II study pages, the JTA history timeline, the Skyway extended hours policy, and JTA releases of May 4 and September 17, 2026.