Salt Lake Transit News Thread

[farmerboy]

Originally Posted by Future Mayor

I like it, I still think there needs to be an additional N/S line somewhere between Main and 9th E. What do you think? Maybe 5th East or 4th E may be better as I could see more density closer to the CBD.

I completely agree! We need an additional North/South route. 4th & 5th are both great options, I think 3rd should also be considered as a N/S option as it border both Library Square and the Eastern end of SLCC Campus on 1700 South.

I would love to hear your pros and cons for each of these 3 routes.

[s.p.hansen]

Originally Posted by farmerboy

So I'm just learning photoshop and had a little too much free time on my hands. I think this would be a cool idea for potential streetcar routes through 2025. Sugarhouse, Granary, & Westminster lines have all been previously proposed. The Central City & Liberty Lines are hybrids of Future Mayor's previous proposal connecting the Sugarhouse line with Trolley Square. I made a few modifications.

GUESSTIMATES

2012 - Sugarhouse Line 2 Miles $56 Million (Funded)

2015 - Granary Line 2.4 Miles $67.2 Million (Planning Phase)
2015 - Westminster Line .9 Miles $25.2 Million (Planning Phase)

2020 - University Line Extension (To Intermodal Hub) 1 Mile $?
2020 - Central City Line 2.3 Miles $65 Million (Speculation)

2025 - Liberty Line 3.2 Miles $89.6 Million (Speculation)

This looks really good farmerboy.

I think it would be hard to sell the Central City Line beyond the point where it meets into the University line though.

Also, just in case you are a perfectionist. Here is the most recent proposal for the streetcar alignment I have seen which means you would just need to do some tweaking with your existing model.


Deseret News

[Smuttynose1]

Salt Lake City Ranked 2nd in the Nation for Public Transit
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/...transportation

"Salt Lake City earns its No. 2 spot in large part because of its heavy investment in serving a large suburban and exurban population. It is the No. 1 city in the nation in terms of public transit spending per capita"

The article ranked cities based on levels of TRANSIT INVESTMENT, RIDERSHIP and SAFETY. Great exposure for Salt Lake City and UTA

[SLCdude]

Originally Posted by Smuttynose1

Salt Lake City Ranked 2nd in the Nation for Public Transit
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/...transportation

"Salt Lake City earns its No. 2 spot in large part because of its heavy investment in serving a large suburban and exurban population. It is the No. 1 city in the nation in terms of public transit spending per capita"

The article ranked cities based on levels of TRANSIT INVESTMENT, RIDERSHIP and SAFETY. Great exposure for Salt Lake City and UTA

Agreed! It's great that UTA is being appreciated like this at a national level. I've got no complaints with second place after Portland. Maybe forum followers was a criterion they forgot to mention.

[farmerboy]

Thanks for the updated map s.p.hansen!

A little disappointed they're only planning on doing half of the proposed streetcar at a time. Curious why you think the Central City Line would be a hard sell past the University Line? I would think the sell would be connecting Sugarhouse to the University.

[s.p.hansen]

Originally Posted by farmerboy

Thanks for the updated map s.p.hansen!

A little disappointed they're only planning on doing half of the proposed streetcar at a time. Curious why you think the Central City Line would be a hard sell past the University Line? I would think the sell would be connecting Sugarhouse to the University.

No, I think the part of the Central City line connecting Sugar House to University is a no brainier, but having the line extend beyond the University Line (north of 400 S.) into the older historical neighborhoods with their limited TOD possibilities would be a much harder sell. I would still love to see it happen though.

[H4vok]

[article already posted]

[s.p.hansen]

Assuming this doesn't get shot down in the House we are going to be in good shape.

Obama proposes $113.6 million for Draper TRAX
Salt Lake Tribune
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/51...n-fta.html.csp

[arkhitektor]

Meh....
I'd rather see transit dollars used elsewhere, like for more streetcar funding in SLC. The Escalade-driving nimbys of Draper fought hard against the extension, so why even bother? There are other places in the valley that are in greater need and are more deserving of the money.

[s.p.hansen]

Draper does have some serious attitude, but this is definitely worth it! If you look at where the line terminates on google earth you can see that it safely extends TRAX beyond the more developed and older part of the city. So this extension is really an investment in being able to potentially expand TRAX all the way into Utah county with much more ease.

[scottharding]

I'm with you, Arkitektor. If those whiners don't want it, give it to someone who does. The South Valley will continue to suck until people wake up down there to what a connected and sustainable community is. Sure, we could force Trax on them, but then they'll bitch about TOD's and apartments above stores, and people who are different colors moving in.

[SLCdude]

Originally Posted by s.p.hansen

Assuming this doesn't get shot down in the House we are going to be in good shape.

Obama proposes $113.6 million for Draper TRAX
Salt Lake Tribune
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/51...n-fta.html.csp

Thanks for posting the article! This is great news. It's also interesting to read people's anti-rail comments such as "They could've just bought each new 'rider' a car for $15,000 and saved half their money." Utahn's should approve of this grant regardless of whether or not they really care about TRAX because the cost is exported from the local government to the Federal Government. "When life hands you lemons, drink lemonade!"

[s.p.hansen]

Originally Posted by SLCdude

Thanks for posting the article! This is great news. It's also interesting to read people's anti-rail comments such as "They could've just bought each new 'rider' a car for $15,000 and saved half their money." Utahn's should approve of this grant regardless of whether or not they really care about TRAX because the cost is exported from the local government to the Federal Government. "When life hands you lemons, drink lemonade!"

Luckily they don't get a choice to approve of whether we get the money or not once the Feds sign the check. Once this clears the federal level the check goes straight to UTA!

Originally Posted by scottharding

I'm with you, Arkitektor. If those whiners don't want it, give it to someone who does. The South Valley will continue to suck until people wake up down there to what a connected and sustainable community is. Sure, we could force Trax on them, but then they'll bitch about TOD's and apartments above stores, and people who are different colors moving in.

Even if Draper doesn't deserve this, having this line extended absolutely clears the way for future expansion; the corridor gets comfy and wide where it will terminate. It's already in the plans to bring TRAX down to Orem at their FrontRunner South station. Even if it takes 20 years for the people there to desire TRAX, everything is preserved and ready for that day to come. Everything about Frontlines 2015 with the exception of the West Valley line, has blasted TRAX lines through older built up areas and has concluded their expansion in undeveloped areas (with planned corridors). When times get better economically and when traffic increases with our density (and when all the people home schooling their kids move on the West side of the Oquirrh Mountains) we will be ready to hit the ground running with another series of TRAX / Rapid Transit Bus expansions.

[Future Mayor]

For those of us that are old enough to remember. A very large number of individuals were admittedly opposed to Light Rail in the first place, but once it was in place they saw the ease and convenience of using it and thus we have the system we have today. If they didn't build it in area's that people didn't want light rail, we wouldn't have any at all.

Some people in Draper were opposed, not all. Often times it isn't the majority that gets heard, simply the loudest group of people. In most government hearings concerning anything new or different, including transit and road proposals, that I have either attended or participated in from the municipal level, the supporters don't usually come out in great numbers because what they want is already being proposed and they don't feel a need to express their support, although it would be nice if they did. So it always seems that "everyone" is against something, simply because it just so happens that nearly everyone at said meeting was against it.

My two cents on Trax into Utah County is that it will be a very very long way down the road, if ever. I know it has been talked about but I really don't see the need, especially if all of us forumers get our way and the core SLC continues to build up without additional places like Sandy and Lehi becoming major business/employment centers. I just don't see the need for Trax to run into northern Utah County. My reasoning behind this, is that Trax is designed to get people to downtown SLC were the largest daytime population is. Taking Trax from Lehi would honestly be way to time consuming for most commuters to downtown. If Sandy was a business hub I could understand taking Trax from Lehi, but if the commuter is heading downtown Lehi residents will be much better off using the Lehi FrontRunner stop. This is the exact same reasoning why Trax is going through Draper the way it is, the vocal residents wanted it to go through the "business district" of Draper, but that is not the purpose of Trax at the south end of the valley, it isn't to serve businesses in Draper it is to serve residents in the burbs and businesses in the city.

I would be willing to listen to logical reasons why Trax should be extended to Lehi, but honestly I can't think of any.

[John Martin]

Okay, just putting it out there to balance things out.. I for one am not rejoicing in all these TRAX expansions and I'm not at all confident that they're the answer. I'm sure if it is built, demand will follow (eventually), and I don't know what else UTA could possibly spend the money on that isn't basically the same thing. As far as I'm concerned, this is a foolish way to spend money on part of the Federal Government, for reasons I'm sure you all have heard or can imagine and don't really need to be debated here. So there's your yin.

[s.p.hansen]

Originally Posted by Future Mayor

I would be willing to listen to logical reasons why Trax should be extended to Lehi, but honestly I can't think of any.

You make some fair points and I agree this TRAX line extending into Utah county is far into the future. Orem's FrontRunner Station is going to have a full on Rapid Transit Bus with its own right of way stopping by the Mall and BYU before terminating when it reaches the Provo FrontRunner Station. This rapid transit bus will do the job for as long as needed and eventually it could be turned into light rail functioning essentially in the same role as the Ogden Streetcar (once existing light rail meets it from the north). Now you have a situation where people living in Draper (those living closer to the TRAX line than FrontRunner) and people living along the TRAX line in Lehi, Pleasent Grove, Lindon and Orem/Vineyard who could take the train to BYU and UVU (Utah's biggest commuter school), or you could take the train to the various business parks along the way (probably a few will sprout up along the line in Lehi), or you could take the train to the mall or downtown Provo.



I colored the Provo Rapid Transit Bus line green to indicate how snazzy it would be to have TRAX seamlessly flow over that right of way.


http://www.mountainland.org/Transpor...2001-06-11.pdf

[SLC Projects]

Originally Posted by scottharding

I'm with you, Arkitektor. If those whiners don't want it, give it to someone who does. The South Valley will continue to suck until people wake up down there to what a connected and sustainable community is. Sure, we could force Trax on them, but then they'll bitch about TOD's and apartments above stores, and people who are different colors moving in.

I live down towards the south end and so does most of my family. So therefor I spend alot of time down in the South end of the Valley. And not everybody is like that. I can't stand those people in Draper or else where for that matter who do whine about getting trax in the area and higher buildings. I for one am all for it.

[scottharding]

Yeah, I'm confused about the notion of extending Trax into Utah County? Isn't it the function of the Front Runner to connect the two counties? I understand Utah County having their own light rail system, serving Provo and Orem (at least for the next twenty years or so), and I think that would be great, but it doesn't make much sense to me to extend the Salt Lake line all the way down to Lehi or beyond.
And for the record, since I often sound much more jaded than I am, I am not opposed to the Draper line. Of course, if the option is to extend the line to Draper, or nothing, then yeah, I'm going with build the line in Draper. I just do feel that there are other lines that should be more of a priority, and where most of the people favor the idea, but of course, UTA hasn't even started the process yet on those lines, so it's all just hypothetical.

[SLCdude]

Thanks to you, S.P., I read your post in Christopher Walken's voice.

On the topic of connecting Draper and Lehi via TRAX, I kind of like the idea even though there probably isn't much of a demand for the connection due to proximity to FrontRunner. If there's a line going all the way South to Draper, and another going all the way North to Lehi, you might as well connect them because they are so close together. Some trains from downtown could go to Draper and back while others continue through Utah County. Another thing to keep in mind that FrontRunner stops less frequently than TRAX, and is better for commuting long distances, whereas TRAX has more stations which makes it more accessible.

[s.p.hansen]

Originally Posted by SLCdude

Thanks to you, S.P., I read your post in Christopher Walken's voice.

That was the goal all along! It makes my argument seem a lot more unnerving and, dare I say it, even more logical .


February TRAX Viaduct Update

1. Geofoam is being placed on both sides of the bridge.

2. Retraining walls are being constructed to cover and retain the Geofoam.

3. The work on City Creek appears to have concluded as it is now fully sealed in its concrete conduit.

4. Concrete deck pours are taking place.