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Originally Posted by SLCdude
Thanks for posting that, s.p.!
Looks like there's plans to extend the Sugar House Streetcar to Westminster College! And more TRAX along 400 S to the hub (creating a downtown loop)! It's also great to see that there's still a possibility of a streetcar line in Ogden. I had no idea there were plans for a Draper to Provo TRAX line! I thought the farthest South they were planning was Lehi. I'm hoping either Ogden or Provo takes a major step that sparks a rail race between the two cities!!!
Just one problem...
Where's the downtown Salt Lake City streetcar!?!? I'm not seeing it.
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I think the Weber, Davis and Salt Lake Counties Transportation Master Plan errors on the side of being conservative when it comes to funding for new projects. I'm sure with a bit extra Federal funding and perhaps some local property tax increases you will see many of the Rapid Transit Bus lines become streetcar and light rail lines. Since the Federal government has shown a strong tendency to fund both the transit studies for streetcar lines and a good portion of the streetcar lines construction as well, I think we will see more streetcar lines than has been alluded to in the master plan.
From the same master plan there is a document titled "unfunded needs" that basically showcases what the WFRC would really like to see on some of these BRT routes. In this document it is pretty clear that the street car lines in SLC and in Bountiful are still the desired way to go. Either way, Ogden's street car construction is secure (it will have funding); we don't have to worry about it becoming a BRT or having to wait until 2020 for construction to begin.
http://wfrc.org/RTPAlternatives/unfunded%20list.pdf
And the refinery that blew up was the Silver Eagle refinery in WX.
Also, on a side note, I did some major Google snooping on the prospects of recovering the gravel pit mining along Beck Street and removing/ relocating the refineries. And I can safely say that there is absolutely no detectable political mobilization of any body of citizens to make this happen. After the Silver Eagle blew up not one person sued the refinery and instead chose to work with the refinery itself to pay for the expenses to expedite the process of repairing their damages.
That idea that Utah could just offer incentives to rebuild the refineries somewhere else is never likely to be possible because of two major hurtles. From 2007 our gas consumption has dropped (the experts agree we will never reach that level of consumption in the US again). Though projections have been made that vehicles on the roads will increase over the next 20 years, oil is still expected to decrease. This comes in light of easily drilled crude becoming harder to come by, a massive increase in electric and hybrid cars in the future and more of an admixture of bio-diesel and natural gas in the market. With China consuming more oil gas prices will still be kept high which will continue to propel the US backing off from oil.
What all of this means is that the US will actually be decreasing its capacity in oil refining which will involve shutting down many refineries. It will also mean that it will no longer be economic to build a new refinery in this county. So our best bet at losing the refineries will simply be the market becoming to steep for them to survive. And the odds of them being shut down are also helped by the fact that they are small compared to their mega refinery contemporaries. Crude keeps becoming more diversified and the market really desires refineries to have the capability to process more and more different kinds of crude. Small refineries can't make the change and thus will be the first on the firing line to be abandoned.
So once these refineries die (in the next 20 years) I think the Beck Street gravel pits will immediately be next to cease operation as redevelopment becomes a real prospect. The delayed but still planned Eaglewood Village is a good sign and a harbinger of things to come for the Beck Street area.