Salt Lake Transit News Thread

[JCarp]

Originally Posted by Future Mayor

As for paying for insurance on the car anyway. All insurance companies have a discount if you designate your car as a recreational usage and use mass transit to commute to and from work. It will save you some additional money on top of the savings you are getting on the wear and tear on the car by not driving it all those miles. So the cost savings are really more than simply the gas.

...and let’s not forget about having to pay to park. While this might not be true for everyone, I would venture to guess that the majority of those able to use mass transit (who’s destination is in the proximity) have to pay some type of fee to park.

[JCarp]

How much do you have to pay to park around the city these days? I know I was fortunate enough to be living on campus while I was at The U to not have to buy a parking pass; but my last job cost $50 per month for an un-reserved spot in the parking garage. How much do the rest of you pay?

[Neuroguy]

Originally Posted by MetroFanatic

Speaking of ED Passes, am I going to have to start paying to ride the bus and TRAX now that school is over? This was my first year, so I'm still learning these things.

Yeah, the ED passes from the Y are good through September and I would assume all others are the same. The expiration date should be on the pass. If it says it is expiring before September, check with your school. For a couple of years the passes from BYU said they expired in May when in reality they were misprinted and were still valid through September. I was never hassled by UTA even though the pass expiration date had passed.

[delts145]

FrontRunner: Residents savor the silence
- Union Pacific, UTA get OK for a quiet zone along rails

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_9140853

The rule ends decades of disturbance from freight trains which - until now - were required to sound horns a quarter-mile before and after every crossing. It also silences the FrontRunner squawks, which now sound only if people or cars are trespassing near the tracks.

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[delts145]

Tesla rolls out its electric sports car



Tesla

Tesla

The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES - It's safe to say Jeremy Snyder gets a charge out of the two-seat Tesla Roadster whenever he pulls one off the lot - and not because it's equipped with an all-electric engine.
As he pulled one of the sleek new automobiles down a side street Thursday and put the pedal to the metal, its lithium-ion battery-powered engine didn't give off sparks. It just emitted a powerful hum, something like a much quieter version of a jet taking off.
''Accelerate pretty good?'' asked Snyder, head of client services for Tesla, who knew the answer.
''I call it a turbine sound,'' he said of the sound. ''Because it's an electric motor it's got 100 percent torque all the time. So it just pulls you like when you're taking off in an airplane.''
After several years of development, the Roadster - with sleek lines like a Ferrari or Porsche and a sticker price of $109,000 - officially moves from the drawing boards to the market next week when Tesla's first store opens. It's near the University of California, Los Angeles, in the city's toney Westwood neighborhood where Beverly Hills, Brentwood and Hollywood practically intersect.
''Because it's Hollywood and glamorous, this is the flagship store,'' Snyder said.
The next store is to open in a couple months near Tesla's headquarters in the Silicon Valley city of San Carlos, where the car was developed with venture capital of more than $40 million.

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[delts145]

A Sign of the Times for Salt Lake City

Delta adds Anchorage flight, resumes Fairbanks service

http://www.sltrib.com/business/ci_9139153

Delta Air Lines will add a second daily flight from Salt Lake City to Anchorage, Alaska, and will resume seasonal service to Fairbanks this month.
Beginning May 17, the additional Anchorage flight will leave Salt Lake at 11:14 a.m. and arrive at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport at 2:05 p.m.
Return flights leave Anchorage at 9 a.m. and arrive in Salt Lake at 3:40 p.m.

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[delts145]

Northwest-Delta union to open gateway to Asia
- One airline owns coveted routes needed for growth

http://www.sltrib.com/business/ci_9143998


Doug Steenland, left, CEO of Northwest Airlines, and Richard Anderson, CEO of Delta Air Lines, pose for photographers after an April news conference to discuss the planned merger of the two companies. (Mark Lennihan/The Associated Press )

Northwest, the fifth-largest carrier in the United States, has the most extensive Asian route network of any American airline and is well positioned to tap that growth. (Delta's westernmost hub, at Salt Lake City International Airport, has been mentioned as a possible launching point for more trans-Pacific flights if the merger is completed.)


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[delts145]

Salt Lake expectd to OK West route for TRAX

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/1...276820,00.html

The Salt Lake City Council favors construction of a light-rail route to the airport along 400 West - not 600 West - and it intends to make that clear tonight.

...Garrott's stance on the 400 West alignment fell more into line with his colleagues late last week when council members and city staff came up with a way to move forward with the 400 West alignment while incorporating Garrott's vsion for 600 West.

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[arkhitektor]

State Supreme Court to decide if Draper residents have say on TRAX route:
http://origin.sltrib.com/news/ci_9170886

Even with this announcement, I'd venture that this is still years from resolution.
If NIMBYs in Draper and Bluffdale are so adament about keeping transit out, I say we should allocate our transit resources elsewhere. Just bypass them with no stops on the way to Utah county. If they want to sit around and wait as their "rural" neighborhoods turn into sprawling, transit-less wastelands, that's their prerogative. Let's put the money somewhere that people actually want the service.

[StevenF]

Originally Posted by arkhitektor

State Supreme Court to decide if Draper residents have say on TRAX route:
http://origin.sltrib.com/news/ci_9170886

Even with this announcement, I'd venture that this is still years from resolution.
If NIMBYs in Draper and Bluffdale are so adament about keeping transit out, I say we should allocate our transit resources elsewhere. Just bypass them with no stops on the way to Utah county. If they want to sit around and wait as their "rural" neighborhoods turn into sprawling, transit-less wastelands, that's their prerogative. Let's put the money somewhere that people actually want the service.

Amen.

[arkhitektor]

FrontRunner: Ridership gains steam
Trains are seeing about 1,000 more passengers than expected daily

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_9190203

Good to see ridership on the rise. The trains have seemed comfotably full over the past week or so. Busy, but not so crowded that I have to stand the whole way home like when they first opened.

[Future Mayor]

I figured there estimates were probably low, just as they were when Trax opened. I think that is a good thing about UTA is the are able to figure out a good cost analysis based on conservative ridership numbers. It's always better to under promise and over deliver. Good job UTA.

[arkhitektor]

Free library TRAX gets push
Another article from the Tribune, this one about TRAX expansion to the airport and the possibility of expanding the free fare zone to the library:

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_9178389

The council signed off on an agreement to put $35 million toward TRAX light rail to Salt Lake City International Airport - branching off of the existing system at 400 West - but wrote into it a requirement that the Utah Transit Authority expand its free zone eastward on the University Line to take in the Library Station around 300 East. The UTA board will consider the agreement when it meets today.

UTA development chief Mike Allegra told council members it would be difficult to enforce an expanded zone that takes in a part of the University TRAX line after it branches away from the north-south line to Sandy, and that it could be costly for the agency. It could get easier by the end of the year, though, when UTA begins using electronic payment cards that will allow for tracking of passengers' trip lengths.

How would it be any more difficult to enforce? You just wouldn't check people's tickets on the University line until after the Library station.

Despite some City Council members' objections, the majority accepted UTA's decision not to put a TRAX stop at 2200 West on the rail line along North Temple Street to the airport. Several members said such a stop was critical for "city building" because it would allow thousands of employees in a nearby industrial zone to ride to work. Allegra said putting a stop there could force airport riders off of the trains because of added delay.

I think I have to agree that the added stop isn't worth the time that it would add to the trip. I have noticed a lot of FrontRunner riders who chose not to take TRAX from the hub and have found bus routes to use instead. With all of the added stops, it can take 20 minutes to get through downtown. For a lot of people, it isn't worth it. As nice as it might be to have a stop every few blocks, it makes the trip so long that people will stop using it.

[delts145]

21st century freeway - Legacy Parkway taking flight - 80% complete, opening this fall, road would ease I-15 traffic


http://www.sltrib.com/ci_9229455


UDOT worker Oswaldo Solis works on the southbound Legacy Parkway on ramp from Parrish Lane in Centerville. (Scott Sommerdorf/The Salt Lake Tribune )


Dowagers flock over feeding grounds on the Legacy Nature Preserve. Legacy Parkway weaves through grasslands and marshes from Salt Lake City to Farmington while saving nearly 4 square miles of migratory bird havens from development near the Great Salt Lake's shores. (Scott Sommerdorf/The Salt Lake Tribune )

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[SLC Projects]

I kind of wish Legacy Parkway would be more to the West. Once you get to Farmington you have the Legacy Parkway and the I-15 running side by side of each other. It kind of looks like Legacy Parkway is an expansion of I-15 right there.
Oh well, at least soon people up there will have the I-15, Legacy Parkway and the Frontrunner to chose from.

[WASDEN]

I disagree projects. I like that the "Legacy" isn't as far West as originally planned, that way more of the wet lands were able to be preserved. It is kind of odd how it runs side by side with I-15 in Farmington. Makes ya realize just how much precious land is burried by asphalt. I do like how there will be no sound barrier walls, something that plagues the freeways of the Wasatch Front making me feel trapped and ruining the views. I do realize that a noisy freeway isn't nice for the neighbors, thats why I'd like to see our freeways below grade whenever possible, much like the East side belt route. That stretch is respectful to its neighbors and a whole lot easier on the eyes than say Bangerter highway. I wonder a lot why Utah makes few attempts at landscaping its highways. There are stretches in California, Arizona, and New Mexico that are just georgeous to drive on. I hope the I-80 do-over will include some decent landscaping to help hide those barren concrete sound walls. Helps deter tagging too.

[Future Mayor]

Originally Posted by WASDEN

I wonder a lot why Utah makes few attempts at landscaping its highways. There are stretches in California, Arizona, and New Mexico that are just georgeous to drive on. I hope the I-80 do-over will include some decent landscaping to help hide those barren concrete sound walls. Helps deter tagging too.

One word "Salt"

[SLC Projects]

Originally Posted by WASDEN

I disagree projects. I like that the "Legacy" isn't as far West as originally planned, that way more of the wet lands were able to be preserved. It is kind of odd how it runs side by side with I-15 in Farmington. Makes ya realize just how much precious land is burried by asphalt. I do like how there will be no sound barrier walls, something that plagues the freeways of the Wasatch Front making me feel trapped and ruining the views. I do realize that a noisy freeway isn't nice for the neighbors, thats why I'd like to see our freeways below grade whenever possible, much like the East side belt route. That stretch is respectful to its neighbors and a whole lot easier on the eyes than say Bangerter highway. I wonder a lot why Utah makes few attempts at landscaping its highways. There are stretches in California, Arizona, and New Mexico that are just georgeous to drive on. I hope the I-80 do-over will include some decent landscaping to help hide those barren concrete sound walls. Helps deter tagging too.

Well not as far west as the wetlands, but having "Legacy" that runs right along the I-15 is kind of odd.
I just think that's too much freeway/roads all in one area.

[arkhitektor]

Originally Posted by SLC Projects

Well not as far west as the wetlands, but having "Legacy" that runs right along the I-15 is kind of odd.
I just think that's too much freeway/roads all in one area.

I've drawn a line in red around the wetlands in the image below and as you can see, they really couldn't have gone any further west because of how close the lake and the wetlands are to the mountains in that area.
The reason that Legacy runs this way is so that it can link up with US 89 in Farmington. At the new northern interchange at Park Ln. in Farmington, Legacy will function as an extension of US 89. If you continue southbound on 89 from the North, you'll end up on Legacy. Going any further west would have just needlessly destroyed more wetlands.

[DENrising]

I know oil prices are high, but the goal here should be to attract more riders, thereby increasing revenue to help pay for increased fuel. The ever increasing prices on UTA's system will deter people from using UTA and will also lead to more pollution. You just can't win with them, but three price increases in a year is way too much. Poor people with no other transit means will suffer the most with higher prices and eventually, reduced service.

I think the cost of riding transit in SLC will eventually be more than than in NYC (current $2 subway fare). Does that make sense, considering the actual cost of living in NYC??

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_9251465

UTA will move to a distance based fare system, and/or increased fares during peak time travel, it is only a matter of time.

Maybe UTA needs to start cutting some of the fat there at their agency!