A Transit Day for all weather...

Took my first transit trip of the new year yesterday. I started off at the intersection of California Avenue and Pioneer. I had originally planned to take the route 232 to downtown but because of the rain I was running late and just missed the bus heading to downtown.

I decided to walk down to 1700 South since I could catch either a 232 or 248 and thought that a 248 would come around 8:48. As I was walking down to 1700 South the weather changed from rain to hail.

Just a couple of minutes after I arrived at the first stop for the 248 a 1999 Gillig Advantage pulled up with a couple of passenger and we headed to the Ballpark TRAX station.

UTA is finally putting in a permanent bus shelter in at Central Station which should do a pretty good job of keeping customers out of the elements while waiting for bus. While I was walking around the station I also saw the new Gillig Advantage BRT Hybrid buses were in service on routes 2 and 550.

While at the station I also walked over and check out the new bicycle center. While the center looks nice there was not a single bike in the bike parking area. While I don't know how it is doing overall, you have to wonder if it is not suffering from the poor location of the station.

From Central Station I rode some of the "getto" UTDC ex-San Jose VTA cars that are usually running on the University line. While the cars could have used a good interior revamp when they were refurbished, they are still in better shape than bus would be of comparable age.

As usual the train was packed by the time it left Gallivan Plaza but I got off at Library to spend some time doing paperwork at the Downtown Library. From there I did some walking around the south downtown area before taking TRAX and route 232 to my starting point.

Oh and the weather changed again. When I arrived at the Library it started to snow but by the time I left it was sunny but cold. It then clouded up during the rest of the trip. A little bit of weather for everyone...

Well it wasn't an exciting trip report but it there will some good ones coming up in a few months. In May I will be making a trip to Portland and all my travel in Portland will be on Tri-Met and after June 15th I will be riding transit almost every so I should have some interesting comments then.

However, on this trip I did get a few ideas for upcoming postings so look for them soon.