Hey everybody,
Remember how I've always pointed to the 400 South & Main interlocking as the main reason we haven't seen more movement on the TRAX Black Line? It looks like that won't be an excuse any longer, as that project is included as part of the $88.5 million UTA seeks to borrow for maintenance:
Quote:
But UTA administrators said the borrowing is for expensive replacement facilities that will last 20 to 50 years — not daily maintenance items — so they consider it a proper use of bonding.
UTA President and CEO Jerry Benson said an example use of the borrowed money would be to replace a 20-year-old rail switch and TRAX rails at 400 South and Main Street in downtown Salt Lake City. It is now at the end of its life span.
“We’re basically buying a new 20-year asset,” Benson said. He added that some transit agencies have gotten into trouble by choosing not do such maintenance or facility replacement when they don’t have the money in hand.
“They say, ‘We don’t have the money now. We’ll wait until it fails.’ Well, if the switch on Main Street and 400 South fails, it affects the Blue Line, the Red Line and the Green Line. And it affects 70,000 people a day who use that, so it’s not really a viable option,” he said.
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http://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/...is-2b-in-debt/
I sincerely hope that when they rebuild that interchange that they do it right. If recent rebuilding projects are any indication, then it looks promising that they will do it correctly.
For those unaware, that interlocking was built 'on the cheap' in order to be done for the Winter Olympics. The University line opened only six months before the Olympics, and it was expected for the interlocking to be rebuilt afterward into a full four-way interlocking so that trains could continue down 4th South and then on to the airport. That would have created the two lines of the originally-promised system - one from the Delta Center south to Sandy, and another from the University of Utah west to the airport. These would have intersected at the 4th South & Main interlocking, which would have been the main hub of transit in Salt Lake City.
Then FrontRunner came along and threw that plan out of wack. The TRAX line to the Intermodal Hub extended from the Delta Center rather than from the 4th south interlocking because 1) it was cheaper and 2) both the Red and Blue lines (as they existed in 2008) could use it. Then, when the airport line was actually built, it tied into the TRAX network at the Arena Station, trashing any need to build the second half of the 4th South line.
There was some idea for a while that if UTA and the local governments could buy the Union Pacific Depot and make that the downtown stop for FrontRunner/Amtrak, then UTA could extend the 4th South line out to about 5th West, turn north to the back of the Union Pacific Depot and stop next to the FrontRunner platforms, then continue directly west beside the railroad tracks for a high-speed route directly to the airport. But alas, things went differently.
Here's some fun historical reading;
LINK. It isn't really a source for any of my statements, but it shows just how hard it was to build TRAX at all in the first place.
Anyway, as a result of building the 4th south interlocking to be temporary, UTA built it so that one switch motor controls both sets of tracks. So when a train is turning right from 4th south (heading west) onto Main Street (going north), both tracks (eastbound and westbound) get switched in that way. So a train headed south on Main Street cannot go through the switch at the same time, even though the right-turning train never actually crosses in front of it. It is super inefficient and blocks any possibility of the Black Line ever working well.
So here is my hope: UTA rebuilds the switches to allow each track to operate independently. This will allow the interlocking to work flexibly enough to accommodate the Black Line along with the other three lines. I have every confidence that UTA is planning to do just this, because in addition to allowing the Black Line to operate, it allows UTA to run the existing three lines with increased flexibility as well - meaning fewer delays to existing service. I cannot understate how important this rebuild will be.
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