Salt Lake Transit News Thread

[delts145]

Streetcars could roll in 3 years

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/7...3-5-years.html

Six decades after Salt Lake City packed away its streetcar, the slow-moving transit system could see a Sugar House revival in the next three years, officials say.

The $40 million to $50 million streetcar line from the 2100 South TRAX station to McClelland Street in Sugar House is "on or ahead of schedule," Mayor Ralph Becker said Friday...

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[delts145]

double post

[SLC Projects]

I can't wait to see the "Sugarhouse street car" come on line. That will be a fun one to ride.

[scottharding]

Hopefully, as this notion becomes more and more of a reality, it will help some of the those sugarhouse projects get off the ground. I went and hung out with some friends at a bar there last night. It had been a while since I'd been over to the Sugarhouse area. It's just so cool. A little streetcar line would be perfect for it.

[delts145]

Road work will slow I-15 traffic
Commuting » New express lanes will include pay-per-use option.

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_12485776

A traffic tangle is coming this week to Interstate 15 north of Salt Lake City, but the reward when construction ends next year will be express lanes for carpoolers and those willing to pay for a smoother ride.

From Friday to fall 2010, traffic between 600 North and the Interstate 215 interchange will be restricted to what normally are the northbound lanes, with a movable barrier to allow three lanes in the direction of rush-hour flows.

When the work is done, commuters will have a fourth lane in each direction, reserved for those riding with more than one occupant or paying an entry fee. At the same time, motorists up and down I-15, including in the Salt Lake Valley, will be able to place an electronic transponder in their cars to pay for express-lane access with each use instead of by monthly permit...


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[i-215]

Stupid HOT lanes. A carpool lane encourages conservation. A toll lane benefits the rich.

Make the rich guy wait in the same traffic I (the poor guy) have to. It's only fair.

[Urban_logic]

Maybe they can get some street cars rolling out west some time. Of course, the bus system and new light rail we are getting out here is good enough for now, but I see street cars in the near future

[SLC Projects]

Originally Posted by i-215

Stupid HOT lanes. A carpool lane encourages conservation. A toll lane benefits the rich.

Make the rich guy wait in the same traffic I (the poor guy) have to. It's only fair.

I agree.

[delts145]

Originally Posted by Urban_logic

Maybe they can get some street cars rolling out west some time. Of course, the bus system and new light rail we are getting out here is good enough for now, but I see street cars in the near future

I am super jazzed about the whole street car concept. I hope we see an intricate grid all over the metro myself. From north to south, and east to west!! YESSS to streetcars... they will add immeasurably to the appeal of our metro.

[cololi]

News from UTA:

TRAX changes (effective August 23):

· All lines will be renamed as colors. University line to be the “red” line (of course!). Sandy line to be the “blue” line. And introducing the “green” line. This green line will become the Mid-Jordan line when that alignment opens in 2012.

· The red line and blue line trains will run every 15 minutes. The green line will start running with service every 30 minutes.

· We are going to temporarily run the green line train all the way from Sandy to the University Medical Center. When the Mid-Jordan platform is done at Fashion Place West station (6400 South) the green line will run from Medical Center to Fashion Place West and then continue to Mid-Jordan when that line is complete.

· It is important to note that there will be no direct service from Sandy to the U once the green line opens all the way. We won’t have room for those extra trains.

· We are making modifications to the blue line and the red line as well. Blue line trains will run from Sandy to Arena station every 15 minutes instead of all the way to Salt Lake Central Station. Red line trains will run from Medical Center to Salt Lake Central every 15 minutes. Red line trains will be scheduled to depart 4 minutes after FrontRunner arrives and arrive at Salt Lake Central 6 minutes before FrontRunner departs. That is a better connection for University passengers to FrontRunner.

FrontRunner changes:

UTA will shorten the travel time by 7 minutes (from 58 to 51 minutes). Trains from Ogden will continue to arrive at :07 and :37 after the hour. Trains from Salt Lake will continue to depart at :27 and :57 after the hour.

[Sight-Seer]

When I think of street cars, I think of the street car buses that they tried out for a while. They didn't work out very well. Evidently these street cars would run on tracks and burn deisel fuel. They'll be a lot noisier than electric.

[arkhitektor]

Originally Posted by cololi

News from UTA:

TRAX changes (effective August 23):

· All lines will be renamed as colors. University line to be the “red” line (of course!). Sandy line to be the “blue” line. And introducing the “green” line. This green line will become the Mid-Jordan line when that alignment opens in 2012.

· The red line and blue line trains will run every 15 minutes. The green line will start running with service every 30 minutes.

· We are going to temporarily run the green line train all the way from Sandy to the University Medical Center. When the Mid-Jordan platform is done at Fashion Place West station (6400 South) the green line will run from Medical Center to Fashion Place West and then continue to Mid-Jordan when that line is complete.

· It is important to note that there will be no direct service from Sandy to the U once the green line opens all the way. We won’t have room for those extra trains.

· We are making modifications to the blue line and the red line as well. Blue line trains will run from Sandy to Arena station every 15 minutes instead of all the way to Salt Lake Central Station. Red line trains will run from Medical Center to Salt Lake Central every 15 minutes. Red line trains will be scheduled to depart 4 minutes after FrontRunner arrives and arrive at Salt Lake Central 6 minutes before FrontRunner departs. That is a better connection for University passengers to FrontRunner.

FrontRunner changes:

UTA will shorten the travel time by 7 minutes (from 58 to 51 minutes). Trains from Ogden will continue to arrive at :07 and :37 after the hour. Trains from Salt Lake will continue to depart at :27 and :57 after the hour.

Who the hell came up with this plan??? These changes are going to suck for everyone except people who go to/from the University.
Maybe (hopefully) I'm just reading something wrong, but from that description, it looks like as of Aug. 23, this is the system map:



I like the idea of using colors instead of names, but some of the service and alignment changes are crap. If I live in Daybreak and want to go to SL Central, I am going to have to take the green line to Fashion Place West, transfer to the blue line, then transfer again to the red line somewhere downtown since that will be the only train going all the way to the intermodal hub??? So much for SL Central being the "central station" if its only going to be served by one of three TRAX lines.

I guess I'll need the 7 minutes I'll save on FrontRunner to make up for the time I'll be wasting on an extra transfer because the Sandy (blue line) train that I currently ride isn't going to service the intermodal hub anymore. What good could it possibly do to end the blue line just a few stops short of SL Central Station?

BOOOOO!!!!!!

[cololi]

I've been saying for some time that this is the direction that UTA was headed, and now it seems like they are certainly moving in the direction to abandon central station. Just wait until midjordan, west vally and the airport are up and running and every downtown intersection fails because Main St. and south temple cannot handle all of the trains. They need to build the downtown bypass/400 south connection to central station before all of these lines are up and running.

Why they would not send their busiest line to Central Station is beyond me. I think they feel that those people along the blue line should transfer to Frontrunner at midvalley or in Draper to get to Central Station. But once they build the station on top of North Temple viaduct, kiss Central Station good bye.

[arkhitektor]

Once FrontRunner South opens, is it going to function as an extension of the current line or will both the north and south lines act as separate lines that both end their runs in Salt Lake?

That may not make much sense, but my question basically is once the south line opens, will trains from Ogden just stop at SL Central for 2 minutes (like they do now at all other stations) and then keep on going all the way to Provo? Or will the trains end their run in Salt Lake and people wanting to keep going south will have to get off one train and board another? If the trains do keep moving right along, it would be great for me, because I'd just take FrontRunner all the way to Murray and bypass TRAX altogether. The downside I'd see is that people getting on the trains at SL Central would have very little time to make transfers. Currently FrontRunner trains sit at SL Central for a good 20 minutes filling with people before they depart.

[Future Mayor]

I'm guessing estimated ridership is probably the main reason. I'm sure they have the statistics that show how many Sandy passangers travel all the way to Central Station and how many Front Runner Riders travel beyond Downtown. If you look at it from the broader perspective I don't see a lot of people coming from Sandy that are headed to Layton or vice versa, (only for Real Games possibly)

Ark, why in the hell would you have to make two transfers, just to make your rant a little bit more effective? If you get on the green line at Day Break you have NO reason to transfer to the Blue line at Fashion Place West, simply stay on the Green line and transfer to the Red line at Library Square. I'm sure the time it takes to travel the extra two and a half block to the east will be made up for by not getting off at Fashion Place.

I don't see UTA abandoning Central Station, they invested to much in it to abandon it. As for the 400 S connector loop, that is in the cities long range transportation plan. Did those of you concerned about the abandonment of Central Station expressed your concerns to City Council regarding the airport alignment, and what was your opinion on it? (I know some of you most likely did.) The alignment decision is ultimately up to them, I know many people expressed their opinion regarding the concrete embedded vs the rock tracks on N. Temple but was the alignment put into consideration in any of your comments to council? Yes I feel that the concrete embedded track is better, but that the bigger issue is the alignment, the airport line MUST go through Central Station and yes that may require a new viaduct in the 600 W neighborhood, but in the long run, this alignment is much more beneficial to the city than the 400 W alignment. I made my opinions know to my council rep and would urge you to do the same. They could always go back and embed the tracks but re-aligning would be next to impossible.

[Makid]

I think this change is to push the need for the 4th south and 7th south loops.

There isn't enough capacity to handle all the trains and passangers on a couple of streets.

Hopefully they can get working on the 2 loops next year. They are only 2 or 3 miles total of track. They have city approval for the loops and I think the EIS are done. Just the funding is needed.

With the lines set to come online staggered in the next couple of years, the need for the loops will become more evident.

Now, if they can get the loops in as well as a few street car circulars by 2015, I think we will have one very nice transit system.

[arkhitektor]

I realize that I am the exception to the norm because I commute from one suburb to another and only travel through downtown, but not running the blue line all the way to SL Central doesn't seem to make sense. Even for the people just trying to get from downtown to FrontRunner are going to have half as many options to get there once this plan starts. I see plenty of people that get on the Sandy Line from FrontRunner each day and stay on through downtown and start getting off the train in SSL and Murray. I can't see what possible benefit UTA will derive from ending the blue line 3 stops short of SL Central.

As for the green line and the number of transfers it will take to get from FrontRunner to Mid-Jordan, it would depend on the way the schedules overlap. The announcement that cololi posted said that the green line would only run on 30 minute headways, so not only would staying on until the library be going out of the way, it could very well take more time than making an extra transfer to the blue line somewhere between Fashion Place and Courthouse.

I'm sure that UTA isn't going to abandon the Intermodal Hub completely, but the way that they've managed their schedules (and the new changes that were announced) and the fact that its so far away from where most people are make it less and less convenient for anyone to use. I know a number of downtown workers that have given up on getting to FrontRunner by TRAX. They take one of the busses that travel along 200 S. or simply walk. (If you're up for the exercise, you can walk the 6 blocks to the hub from Gallivan Plaza faster than you can get there on TRAX).

As cololi stated, if and when they open a "sub hub" at North Temple, nobody is going to use Central Station anymore.

[arkhitektor]

Originally Posted by Makid

I think this change is to push the need for the 4th south and 7th south loops.

There isn't enough capacity to handle all the trains and passangers on a couple of streets.

Hopefully they can get working on the 2 loops next year. They are only 2 or 3 miles total of track. They have city approval for the loops and I think the EIS are done. Just the funding is needed.

With the lines set to come online staggered in the next couple of years, the need for the loops will become more evident.

Now, if they can get the loops in as well as a few street car circulars by 2015, I think we will have one very nice transit system.

I've never seen anything regarding a new SW downtown loop other than in the WFRC's long range plans. If someone has a link to more info, please post it here. If it's still just a long-range plan and no EIS has been done, I don't see it as having a chance of actually being built before any of the new lines open by 2015.

[Future Mayor]

I see Central Station getting a huge passenger boost once Front Runner south opens, I would expect that most downtown workers, (all depending on travel times) using Central Station as opposed to Murray to access Trax. And that is only if UTA plans it well enough to make it more beneficial time wise, so that remaining on the faster FrontRunner, and taking Trax through downtown from Central Station will be faster than riding trax all the way from Murray.

I wouldn't be surprised in the future as ridership through Central Station and the west side of downtown increases, if they did choose to extend the Blue line to Central Station.

[arkhitektor]

Originally Posted by Future Mayor

I wouldn't be surprised in the future as ridership through Central Station and the west side of downtown increases, if they did choose to extend the Blue line to Central Station.

They're doing that now, why would they cut that service? What benefit will they get in August from stopping the blue line at the Arena station 3 stops sooner than they currently are?