Salt Lake Transit News Thread

[arkhitektor]

Originally Posted by stayinginformed

I was bored today, so I made a google map with all of the UTA Rail Lines on it. I also added in the proposed downtown and Sugarhouse streetcar lines. If there are colors you would rather see for any of them let me know, and I can change them. Here is the link:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en...95601&t=h&z=12

Enjoy!

Cool map. If you wanted to really go crazy, you could add the Ogden-WSU Streetcar and the S. Davis County alignments as well:

http://rideuta.com/projects/OgdenWSU/

http://rideuta.com/projects/southDav.../overview.aspx

[stayinginformed]

I will start working on it.

[Future Mayor]

Originally Posted by delts145

.

I like that there is continuing and more frequent talk regarding street cars. I also like the idea of street car and Trax on the same street, might as well take advantage of the large streets, like the article said.

I think Special Improvement Districts could be a reasonable option for Streetcar funding. I would hope however that those property owners surrounding the proposed lines would be more receptive and visionary than those on N. Temple.

As for the image posted in the D. News. Maybe it's a good thing that they are changing their format. Apparently the map maker can't read or the editor doesn't exist because the article states that it would travel down 200 E, and the map shows it on State. Somebody is asleep over there at the D. News.

As for Councilman Christensen's suggestion to take it midblock between State and 200 E, I don't see that happening right behind the Federal building, plus it doesn't really add anything to that block as it would on 200 E, unless of course Orpheum Ave was extended from State St. through the block W/E, and Plum Ave extended from 200 S, north to Orpheum.

[Future Mayor]

Originally Posted by s.p.hansen

Well, I doubt Nephi will get the Front Runner extension in the same wave Payson does, but I think it's still too early to count Santaquin out. If you look at the Mid-Jordan TRAX line and how UTA is planning ahead for a projected population expansion (with some stops in the middle of nowhere), I don't think it is too far of a stretch to say that come the 10 plus years or so when Payson is continuing to grow and Santaquin right behind it, that UTA would see it fit to lay track in an area with anticipation of many future new costumers. There is a big difference in distance between of Payson to Santaquin and Santaquin to Nephi.

The only city/cities that will get FrontRunner expansion at the same time Payson does is Spanish Fork, and Springville others will have easier access such as Mapleton, Salem, Elk Ridge and Woodland Hills. As much as Santaquin wants Front Runner service there will be no demand, even at the time that it's completed to Payson. I would estimate that if Santaquin approves the sales tax for UTA (BUS) service that the same thing would occur as will occur when FrontRunner reaches Provo. There will be an express route from Payson to the end of the line. At completion to Payson I would expect an express bus will run from Santaquin, maybe even Nephi, to the end of the line in Payson and when ridership numbers show the need then UTA will look at expanding service.

If Santaquin approves the UTA tax increase UTA may start to look at purchasing right of ways for future growth, but you are fooling yourself if you anticipate that FrontRunner will extend past Payson even remotely close to the 2025 time line. Sorry

[arkhitektor]

Based on current assumptions:



Last year when UTA briefly stopped the Sandy trains at the Arena Station, it seemed like they were setting that line up to eventually not go to Central Station and continue it to the airport. After much outcry from Sandy riders who wanted to transfer to FrontRunner, they reversed their decision. I could see them changing the route again though, once the N. Temple transfer station was completed. I've never seen anything to indicate that the WVC line will continue past the current Central Pointe station.

[Future Mayor]

I don't see them only sending one line in and out of Central Station tough. With the number of commuters to and from the south into Downtown for work, I would guess that they will need more trains than the frequency of just the Sandy train.

[arkhitektor]

Blue line commuters who wanted to transfer to FrontRunner would just use the N. Temple transfer station instead of Central Station. Who knows, that's just what I assumed based on the changes they tried to make the Sandy line last year.

I commute from Davis Co. to Murray and would just get on the Sandy line at North Temple.

Ideally, I would just take FrontRunner all the way to Murray central, but something tells me that Ogden FrontRunner trains are not going to continue directly to Provo. I think that Central Station will be the terminus for Provo and Ogden trains and that to travel from Odgen to Provo on FrontRunner, you'll have to transfer from one FrontRunner train to another at Central Station.

[s.p.hansen]

Originally Posted by Future Mayor

I don't see them only sending one line in and out of Central Station tough. With the number of commuters to and from the south into Downtown for work, I would guess that they will need more trains than the frequency of just the Sandy train.

I had this exact same thought.

Also, I yield to you that Santaquin does not have the same assurance Payson does in getting Front Runner at the same time.

You have successfully killed one of my dreams.

That dream being my grandparents picking me up at the future train station in Santaquin; they will probably both be dead by the time the train gets there.

[s.p.hansen]

Originally Posted by arkhitektor

Blue line commuters who wanted to transfer to
Ideally, I would just take FrontRunner all the way to Murray central, but something tells me that Ogden FrontRunner trains are not going to continue directly to Provo. I think that Central Station will be the terminus for Provo and Ogden trains and that to travel from Odgen to Provo on FrontRunner, you'll have to transfer from one FrontRunner train to another at Central Station.

Sadly I think you are right on this one. I remember talking to a Front Runner employee a year ago about this and he said the same thing. Also, I found out yesterday from talking to a pretty attractive Front Runner employee that the only reason for the Front Runner stop at the Gateway is because of complaints from the Gateway Mall and Gateway customers who shop there saying that they don't like waiting so long to go from the Central Hub to the Gateway by TRAX. Lame.

I'm really starting to lose faith in UTA actually doing the things it does with a master plan in mind.

[arkhitektor]

They may as well just rename it "600 W. Station" because UTA has been undercutting its role as a true "Central" Station since practically the day it opened.

[stayinginformed]

I added the Ogden and South Davis lines, so that should make the map complete.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en...91202&t=h&z=11

[SLCdude]

I'm just curious as to who the target riders for the Salt Lake streetcar line are. It looks like it just connects the commercial center to the "granary district". I'm wondering if they're expecting a large portion of the riders to transfer from TRAX to streetcar in order to get to the granary district because it doesn't look as if it goes into any residential areas. I'm guessing the streetcar line is part of the city's effort to re-develop the Southwestern part of downtown.

[John Martin]

Originally Posted by SLCdude

I'm just curious as to who the target riders for the Salt Lake streetcar line are. It looks like it just connects the commercial center to the "granary district". I'm wondering if they're expecting a large portion of the riders to transfer from TRAX to streetcar in order to get to the granary district because it doesn't look as if it goes into any residential areas. I'm guessing the streetcar line is part of the city's effort to re-develop the Southwestern part of downtown.

Good question.

[s.p.hansen]

Originally Posted by arkhitektor

They may as well just rename it "600 W. Station" because UTA has been undercutting its role as a true "Central" Station since practically the day it opened.

I like this idea and I think there should be a monument erected with a bronze statue of a man standing with a UTA Master Plan in one hand and his other hand starting to cut it with scissors.

[jmonkey]

Originally Posted by SLCdude

I'm just curious as to who the target riders for the Salt Lake streetcar line are. It looks like it just connects the commercial center to the "granary district". I'm wondering if they're expecting a large portion of the riders to transfer from TRAX to streetcar in order to get to the granary district because it doesn't look as if it goes into any residential areas. I'm guessing the streetcar line is part of the city's effort to re-develop the Southwestern part of downtown.

I think that is it exactly. They expect new development to spring up around the streetcar lines at a rapid pace, especially in areas like the granary district or in South Salt Lake. The residential areas will come to the streetcar!

[s.p.hansen]

Origonally posted on SkyscraperPage in the California High-Speed Rail Thread by dragonsky

Las Vegas Sun
Panelist: Region ignored too long on transportation issues
By Richard N. Velotta (contact)
Las Vegas Sun
Friday, Oct. 15, 2010 | 2:05 a.m.

Scott Smith, the mayor of Mesa, Ariz., recalled the day when he and Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper first saw the U.S. Department of Transportation’s map showing preferred high-speed rail corridors in the United States.

The Northeast corridor was outlined and the planned California high-speed rail system was noted. There were lines in and out of Chicago, Florida, Texas and Georgia. But there was a big gap in the Rocky Mountains and the desert Southwest, where no corridors were shown.

“We looked at the map and we were stunned,” Smith said. “Pardon me for saying this, but we were pissed off. Not only did they forget about us, they completely disrespected us.”

And that’s why Smith, who recently was elected by fellow mayors from across the country to serve on the advisory board of the United States Conference of Mayors, decided that the Maricopa Association of Governments needed to be a part of the Western High-Speed Rail Alliance.

The alliance on Thursday wrapped up the second day of a three-day rail conference that has brought nearly 200 transportation experts to the Vdara. Utah Sen. Bob Bennett is scheduled to wrap up the event with a closing keynote address at lunch on Friday.

Other western transportation organizations felt the same way, leading the Denver Regional Council of Governments, the Utah Transit Authority, the Regional Transportation Authority of Washoe County and the Regional Transportation Authority of Clark County to work together to get the West noticed by the Department of Transportation and the Federal Railroad Administration.

Smith said rail corridors aren’t the only transportation elements that have been ignored by the federal government.

He cited interstate highway transportation and the fact that Phoenix and Las Vegas are the largest major cities in the country not linked by an interstate highway, a matter local transportation experts are hoping to change with a proposal for Interstate 11 from Phoenix north through Las Vegas to Reno and beyond.

“Our region has been ignored for far too long,” Smith said. “We have to go kicking and screaming and kicking down the door.”

Part of the process, he said, involves educating citizens about the disparity and explaining that high-speed rail is not a people mover but an “economic driver that happens to move people.”

“We have to be loud; we have to be there; we have to be obnoxious, but we have to be noticed,” Smith said.

Smith was joined by representatives from Utah, Colorado and Nevada on a panel about the vision of the Western High-Speed Rail Alliance and what it can do to get funding for western projects.

Jennifer Schaufele, executive director of the Denver Regional Council of Governments, said the alliance needs to emphasize that most of the growth in the last decade and what is forecast in the years ahead includes Arizona, Colorado, Nevada and Utah, with growth occurring three times faster than the rest of the United States.

But the geography of the area also makes for funding challenges, because high-speed rail needs straight or gently curving routes, which are hard to come by in the Rocky Mountains unless expensive tunneling is used.

John Inglish, general manager of the Utah Transit Authority, said voters twice approved sales tax increases in his state to pay for light rail and commuter lines in Salt Lake City, and the federal government should look at that local commitment when distributing funds for high-speed rail.

When the Utah projects are completed, 90 percent of the population along the Wasatch Front will be within a mile of major transit stop, Inglish said.

Michael Moreno of the Washoe County RTC said high-speed rail is critical to reinvigorating tourism in Nevada and with the state’s sustainability efforts.

He also noted that Northern Nevada, Salt Lake City and Denver are considering bids for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games and any of those sites would be well-served by high-speed rail.

But panelists said one of the most compelling reasons why federal authorities should pay more attention to alliance states is that Las Vegas will be on the north end of what may be the first true high-speed rail project in the country with the DesertXpress.

Tom Stone, president of DesertXpress Enterprises, debuted his company’s newest video explaining the project and how it would set the stage for high-speed rail in the United States.

“Once we get this system up and operating, people in this country are going to clamor for high-speed rail around the country,” Stone said. “They don’t know what it’s about, but they will, and it will be a great boon to everything that you are trying to do.”

Stone also recommended that system developers do as much as possible to get their environmental permitting completed quickly.

“Focus your efforts upon route planning and identification of your additional segments and then get the EIS (environmental impact statement) process done for that segment,” Stone said. “That way, you will move to the top of the list for federal funding.”

Read More: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010...t-region-must/

http://www.whsra.com/

[SLCdude]

Originally Posted by stayinginformed

I added the Ogden and South Davis lines, so that should make the map complete.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en...91202&t=h&z=11

Thanks for making the map!

I'm not very familiar with the Ogden streetcar line but it seems strange to me. Would it really cut through the Weber State campus like that?

[arkhitektor]

That really is the alignment.

Here's a link to an overlay map:
http://rideuta.com/images/WSUOgdenDe...ignment3c3.jpg

I'm a student at Weber and actually emailed a comment about the route, because it is so random. It actually cuts directly through an existing 8-story dormitory, and as far as I know, there are no plans to demolish it.

[stayinginformed]

Yeah, when I started putting that line on the map, I thought it couldn't be right. Especially going right between those two buildings (quite a squeeze). But that is the recommended alignment right now.

[SLCdude]

If the line were to stay on Dixon Drive the proposed stations would pretty much be in the same locations and it wouldn't dissect the campus. Running TRAX along South Campus Drive at the U of U turned out well:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...,310.93,,0,9.3