Salt Lake Transit News Thread

[Always Sunny in SLC]

Originally Posted by Liberty Wellsian

Parking garages are nothing when compared to driveways, regular garages, and on street parking(as opposed to linear gardens, bike lanes, wide sidewalks etc.) We so often focus on large projects on relatively small plots of land at the expense of focusing on huge swaths of our environment that are being misused to much larger consequence.

Parking garages do not trouble me that much. At least they are vertical. Strip malls, seas of homes with 2 car garages with 20 foot by 20 foot drives, acres and acres of side yards that are used for nothing other than depleting our reservoirs is so so sooooooo much bigger bur since the irrational is common we accept it as normal, defacto, acceptable. If we spent half the energy examining the everyday project as we do "larger" projects our city environment and our daily lives would be radically improved.

It is shocking when you really look into it how much time and resources are spent accommodating the car. I agree that there are huge issues outside of parking garages, I think the need for parking and in urban areas that means parking garages is a big impediment to building affordable housing in dense places. From the data I can see it is about 30k cost per parking stall to construct a garage. That is above ground so below grade would go up from there. The economics of that is really tough. If you could cut parking out completely each unit becomes more affordable or at least more profitable for the developer. My guess by 2030 SLC will be approving projects that have only very minimal parking for legacy car owners and space for pick up and drop off of people utilizing ride hailing services. This can make urban living way more cost competitive with suburban places.

[FullCircle]

I have also heard the $30,000/stall for parking garages, which is funny, considering you can buy a perfectly good car for less than that. The lifespan of the stall may be longer than the car though... Anyway, funny to think about.

[Hatman]

I lied. One last update on the S-Line streetcar.

I saw by the cleared paths in the snow that the S-Line is actually operating over the new extended siding, so I hung around an extra minute and took a picture of the eastbound car stopping at the new platform, then passing the westbound car between stops (at an amazing closing speed of of 50 mph! Whoo hoo!)




Trains in the snow are awesome. For the past few days I've been taking TRAX and the bus to work, and it is amazing how the TRAX trains just plow through the snow without a care, with no change to their schedules. It is fascinating how taking TRAX during a snow storm isn't all that different to taking TRAX during a rain storm - but that the same comparison doesn't hold up at all for the buses. They were late, they dumped you off in snow banks, they had a hard time getting around cars that were stuck in the snow, ect.

I checked on the Tracker App to see how the UVX line handled the snow, and it seemed like the buses were doing OK. Was anyone able to ride that line during or after the big snow storms to see if the BRT line was affected by the snow?

[Liberty Wellsian]

Why the future of Caltrain is being built in Salt Lake City

https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/02/...h-stadler/amp/

[Hatman]

Thanks for posting such an amazing article! I had no idea Stadler was that far along with their plant here and with the CalTrain EMU's. I just have to post some quotes and pictures, it was too good not to!

Once it’s complete, proponents say, the difference between the new electric trains and the current diesel ones will be like Teslas versus gas guzzlers: nimbler, smoother and far more energy efficient.

The electrification project is aimed at getting more people to ride the rail. The new trains will still run at 79 mph, the same as the current maximum speed, but they’ll be much faster at stopping and starting. That means they can fit in more stops in less time.

Another plus: The ride will be a lot smoother than today’s sometimes bone-shaking experience, thanks to the electric acceleration and special air cushioning around the wheels.

Signs of progress were clear on a recent afternoon at Stadler’s Salt Lake City facility. Six bright and shiny red-and-white train cars stood out on the assembly floor, skeletons waiting to be filled with the guts of the train’s interior. Workers in bright orange vests aimed laser trackers to mark locations for bolts and screws and started to install stairs and other components.

Even as the work progressed, construction continued on the facility itself, which includes a massive warehouse for hundreds of train parts and special rooms to work on different pieces of the new trains. Big Swiss and U.S. flags hung from the walls.

“In March last year, we literally had cows grazing out here,” said Jacob Splan, the energetic construction manager, as he gave a whirlwind tour of the sprawling plant. “It’s a mad dash right now to finish it.”

The car shells make an impressive journey from Stadler’s factory in Altenrhein, Switzerland: They’re trucked to Basel, boated down the Rhine River to Antwerp, shipped across the Atlantic to Houston and then delivered via rail to Salt Lake City.

Why Salt Lake City? Utah has a big logistics and transportation industry, and Stadler also is receiving generous tax incentives from the city and the state. Thanks to the Mormon Church’s wide-ranging missionary program, the region also has a lot of bilingual people — German and English can both be heard on the factory floor.

And the folks from Switzerland feel at home among the mountain peaks and snow of the Salt Lake Valley region. “It looks almost the same to me,” said Christoph Brocker, the project manager, who had worked on similar train projects in Austria and Switzerland before coming to the U.S. to build Caltrains.

One difference between working in Switzerland and Utah: “Don’t ask your people to come to work on a Sunday here — they won’t show up,” Brocker said. “But they’ll work twice as hard on a Saturday.”

It will be such an awesome day when Stadler delivers a fleet of these trains to FrontRunner! Minus the strange double-door thing.

(CalTrain is equipping their cars with both low and high platform doors so that they can transition their stations from low-level platforms that require stairs to board, to high-level platforms compatible with the High Speed Trains... that were recently *delayed* by the governor...)

I need to get over there and get some pictures! These new shells and finished cars will be my new white whales.

[FullCircle]

^^^ You're going to stab at them from the heart of hell and for the sake of hate?

[Hatman]

Absolutely, because these trains current trainsets will never run in Utah, only California! Heart breakers!

[FullCircle]

Ha!

Also a friend just sent me this article. While I can't say I agree with 100% of it, it is interesting and seems like something appropriate to this forum.
http://unevenearth.org/2018/08/the-s...-the-motorcar/

[Stenar]

Originally Posted by FullCircle

Ha!

Also a friend just sent me this article. While I can't say I agree with 100% of it, it is interesting and seems like something appropriate to this forum.
http://unevenearth.org/2018/08/the-s...-the-motorcar/

I LOVE this article and agree with it 110%!!!

[Hatman]

UTA announces Free Fare Days in effort to reduce air pollution
No charge for Frontrunner, TRAX and bus rides on Thursday 2/28 & Friday 3/1
https://www.abc4.com/news/local-news...ion/1797391946

Kind of odd days to choose, but they'll definitely get more realistic results of a 'surprise' one-day free transit day than they did for their experiment during the Christmas Holidays in 2017.

I wonder if they are hoping for good results during the legislative session to act as proof that free transit works?

[Liberty Wellsian]

We should do December, January, and February free next winter and then they can reevaluate. The legislature would only have to commit to 3 months, 3 months when everybody is unhappy about the air and driving conditions are nasty.

[Makid]

The Free Fare days are to help the Legislature know how ridership increases with free fares.

It is the primary reason that they chose 2 days and just over 1 week to advertise it on the news and in the papers. The more people know about it the better.

UTA however isn't pushing this as it is being pushed by a few private companies. SLC and SLCO are only helping to bridge the gap for 2 days rather than 1.

There is are a few more reasons for the Free Fare days, one is to show the need to invest in upgrading FrontRunner. Another is to help other Cities along the Wasatch Front to invest some of the 40/40/20 sales tax in increasing bus service. Outside of SLC, no city is looking at using any of the funds they are/will get for bus service. I don't count Ogden only because they are trying to use their increase for a specific BRT line rather than an overall service increase.

The Legislature is looking at between 15 and 30 days of Free Fares on UTA for 2020 already but if the ridership increase is dramatic enough, it may be enough to help convince others in the Legislature to increase the number of days if not fund it for a full year, possibly 2020 or 2021.

My worry is that many people will use UTA on Thursday but FrontRunner will see a decrease between Thursday and Friday due to FrontRunner being already near capacity. This may push upgrades on FrontRunner higher on the priority list for the State but it means that Free Fares might suffer until FrontRunner is upgraded.

[Liberty Wellsian]

1)I don't see how such a small sample size of 2 days really tells you much.
2) How many people are going to change their routine for a day or two since it isn't going to impact their finances much at all?
3) The only reason I know of this is because I read this forum. How many people really are aware of the free fare days? If you asked 100 people on the street how many would know about it and of those how many could tell you which days would be free?

This seems like a waste of money to me. Worse, conclusions drawn from this"experiment" could lead to some poor decisions. Fund a real trial or save the money for something meaningful.

[Makid]

Tomorrow starts the Free Fare days.

I know that they have been pushing it on the UDoT signs on I-15 all week. I haven't seen much about it on the TV newscasts nor on their respective websites.

I do hope that UTA provides the ridership numbers for each day nearly next week. They have extra people that will be doing manual counts to get as close to real time numbers as possible.

It also looks like UTA will be getting funding for 17 days of free transit each year for the next 3 years based on the current bills. Funding can be increased if ridership increases.

[Makid]

Originally Posted by Makid

Tomorrow starts the Free Fare days.

I know that they have been pushing it on the UDoT signs on I-15 all week. I haven't seen much about it on the TV newscasts nor on their respective websites.

I do hope that UTA provides the ridership numbers for each day nearly next week. They have extra people that will be doing manual counts to get as close to real time numbers as possible.

It also looks like UTA will be getting funding for 17 days of free transit each year for the next 3 years based on the current bills. Funding can be increased if ridership increases.

Just an hour or less since I posted the previous post this landed:

https://www.ksl.com/article/46500708...day-and-friday

The Utah Transit Authority, in collaboration with local government and health organizations, is offering free rides to the Utah public all day on February 28 and March 1 in hopes that it will inspire greater utilization of public transportation.

UTA joined forces with Intermountain Health Care, the Salt Lake City Mayor’s Office, Salt Lake County and Davis County to offer free rides on all types of transportation in Utah on two Free Fare Days. The movement will not just provide low-cost travel to passengers and help prevent the arrival of a winter inversion, it will also be used as a case study on whether more Free Fare Days should be done in the future.

“The impetus is coming from a lot of places in the community,” UTA spokesman Carl Arky told KSL.com. “We (had) a free fare day in 2017 and we saw a significant spike in ridership. I think that caught a lot of people’s attention.”

...On Dec 22, 2017, UTA hosted a “Free Fare Friday” and 22,000 more riders than usual took advantage....

The FrontRunner, in particular, experienced a jump, as 66 percent more people rode than on average, according to a UTA press release. That’s 11,982 additional passengers, on top of an average of 18,034. Additionally, TRAX saw a 32 percent increase in use, and UTA buses saw a 23 percent bump, according to UTA.

So far, Arky thinks there will be more Free Fare Days. Part of it depends on how well the public responds to taking public transportation. “This will be a test and we’ll find out if the public is willing to use public transportation,” he added.

[Makid]

UTA is finally looking at revamping bus service:

http://rideuta.com/About-UTA/Active-...ervice-Choices

Take the survey if you haven't and let them know what you would like. I personally went with increasing ridership and away from coverage. I also let them know if the comments that if the lower density areas want bus service, they can pay for it from existing sales taxes.

The earliest changes would happen is August of 2020.

Also, the State is updating the transit/transportation structures to allow cities that receive their 40% of the 40/40/20 sales tax to use the funds on sidewalks, bus stops, transit directly, bike lanes, and stations. This would include large stations such as dreamed about for SL Central and the possible Murray Central stations.

Also, Counties have until 2022 to enact the last .25% sales tax increase for transit. After June 30, 2023, Cities would be able to enact the sales tax themselves to increase transit within their city.

[Reecemartin]

[Deleted]

[Comrade]

Originally Posted by Reecemartin

A Cool Flyover Video of the Trax Red Line!

https://youtu.be/0695u6u0Au8

"For some reason, they decided to put the [medium density] residential housing really far away and the parking lots [for offices/commercials] up against the light-rail stations..."

That's suburban Salt Lake for you!

[ThePusherMan]

"Cars don't ride trains. People ride trains." Lol

[Makid]

Free-fare experiment increased UTA ridership by 20,000, agency says

https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics...re-experiment/

The Utah Transit Authority found a quick way to increase ridership: offer free fares throughout its bus and train system.

UTA and partners offered free fare days on Feb. 28 and March 1, a Thursday and Friday. Interim Executive Director Steve Meyer told the UTA Board on Wednesday that the two days of free rides attracted an extra 20,000 passengers.

“That's about a 16 percent total overall ridership increase,” Meyer said. “Buses saw about a 10 percent increase. Light rail was up 14 percent; FrontRunner, 46 percent. So it was good participation from the public.”

He estimated the increased ridership resulted in about 96,000 pounds of net emissions reduced over those two days by people choosing mass transit instead of personal cars. “It was very successful,” he said.

But it was a bit less successful than the last time UTA offered a free-fare day two years ago — when ridership rose by 23 percent. Officials have said that higher rate might have occurred because that happened near Christmas when many people used the UTA system to look at holiday decorations in downtown Salt Lake City.

Meyer said he overheard a bus rider on Wednesday telling another passenger that he tried UTA on the free-fare day, and decided to keep riding because of it.

“We got one,” he said to laughs. “I hope he is one of many, because that is what we are trying to accomplish: give people that experience and exposure, give them a reason with the air-quality concerns to get out and try our system and then hopefully they’ll find it convenient.”

The Legislature this year just created a pilot program to create more free-fare days in the future as an experiment to reduce air pollution.

The final version of the bill provided $500,000, which would fund about seven free fare days. UTA estimates that each one costs it about $70,000 in lost cash fares. An earlier version of the legislation had proposed $1.2 million to fund 17 free fare days over three years.

Unlike the two free-fare days that UTA just offered — which occurred on relatively clean air days — the future ones would be triggered by forecasts of an inversion.

UTA and the Utah Division of Air Quality will measure how many vehicles are likely removed from the road and the effect on the air — and help see if more free-fare days should be considered in the future.

The recent free-fare days were funded by $80,000 contributed by Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Davis County and Intermountain Healthcare. UTA also contributed by giving up an estimated $60,000 in lost fares.

Some bus systems in Utah — in Park City and Cache County — already offer free fares at all times. UTA has been offering it, thanks to a federal grant, on its new Utah Valley Express bus rapid transit system in Provo and Orem. The agency has said that has quintupled ridership from the old bus routes that it replaced.