Saturday trip to Ogden...

Image via Wikipedia Yesterday I had another experience at riding Front Runner.

I took the 2:25pm out of Central Station up to Ogden. Arriving at Central Station I was amazed at how many people were getting off the train and heading for TRAX. I knew that the Italian festival was going on in front of the Rio Grande depot but did not expect such crowding on a Saturday. While my train wasn't full it still had a pretty good crowd.

I forgot to bring along my schedules when I left home and didn't think to get one while on Front Runner so I went into the transit center to get them. I knew what times my buses were supposed to come but wanted the schedules in case something happened.

While the schedule racks were well equipped, there were no Front Runner timetables. In fact all the Front Runner timetables were stored next to the ticket windows but were not accessible due to a gate being down on the weekend.

After running into the transit center I got on the 603 which was a 2007 Gillig BRT bus in order to ride over to Washington Blvd to connect with the 612. The last time I was in Ogden I saw several Chinese restaurants along the southern portion of the 612 so I was planning to head to one of them.

I was delayed in boarding while a woman helped putt her elderly mother on the bus who needed to transfer to the northbound 612. There was also a family sitting near the front with a couple of children. I didn't pay attention to the two woman sitting on the left side of the bus as I passed them at sat down in the left side seats before the step to the rear of the bus.

As I sat down the one woman wearing jean shorts and a tube top on the left side of the bus was trying to collapse her baby stroller. She started getting really mad at it and after a couple of minutes threw the baby stroller out the door of the bus, then put a cigarette in her mouth and walked out and started smoking (at the time I thought the baby was still in it but the other woman was holding the baby).

After a couple of minutes she finished her cigarette, finally collapsed the baby seat then came in and slammed it onto the empty area above the right front tire. You could see the family on the right get upset when she slammed the baby stroller next them as it hit the side window very hard. The woman then looked at them and said "Don't give me a dirty look, just get the **** off the bus if you don't like it".

Yes this woman had some anger issues to deal with. The mother of the family on the right went up and said to the driver that she was nervous riding with that woman on the bus but the driver just kept looked in the mirror at angry woman as she bent over above the other woman who turned out to be her mother who was holding the baby.

Then angry woman made a couple of more comments to the mother on the right as the bus headed over to Washington Blvd which fortunately is a short ride. I got off the bus quickly and walked over to catch the 612. There is only supposed to be a 4-minute wait for the 612 but it was no were in sight. When I saw the northbound 612 show up I walked over to that bus since I still could not see the southbound coming.

I board the bus that was fairly crowded. I ended up sitting on the seat directly in front of the back door. The family from the 603 was sitting on the left side of the bus while the mother of the angry woman from the 603 sat in the same seat as I did on the 603. The angry woman's mother showed all the signs of being a meth user.

I knew there was some fast food places at 12th Street so I decided to head up there. We ended up stopping at every stop along the way and by the time I got off the bus was standing room only. After a quick lunch at Wendy's I took the 612 back to 25th street. This trip was very uneventful except for one woman who got on with a baby stroller with the driver telling her she need to have it collapsed before boarding the bus.

Instead of riding the 603 three blocks to Union Station I just walked.

Since I still didn't have a timetable for Front Runner, I went over and boarded the train after it pulled in at 8:25pm and waited for its 9:08pm departure. Just before departure a police officer walked through and checked everyone's tickets.

The trip down to Salt Lake City was pretty uneventful except for a couple of people who got into argument in the transition area at the end of the car although nothing ever came of it. When we arrived at Central Station at 10:15pm there was a huge crowed getting on who started pushing on before we could even get off the train. Some of them were even dressed in pretty formal attire.

I had a few minute wait until the next Sandy train departed. The northbound Front Runner left with a full load of passengers despite it being 10:25pm. There was even a large group to get on our southbound TRAX train. I knew since I was getting off at the 4500 South station the best place to sit was the very back of the train so that is were I decided to sit.

There was good crowds greeting the train at very stop and we had a full seated load by the time we left the Courthouse TRAX station. Upon arriving at the Ballpark station it was clear the Bee's game just let out and there was a wall of people ready to board the train. From the stop until I got off at Midvale North station the train was standing room only.

Overall, this trip was a mix of everything. From the people getting on Front Runner in formal wear to the angry woman it was a mixture of extremes. What is clear is that that we have a developing system that is becoming a vital regional resource. I was able to travel by UTA bus, Front Runner commuter rail, and UTA TRAX service to make a trip across the region. This is how the system is supposed to work, I was able to take multiple forms of transit to reach my destination in relative convenience.

Some Articles to take note of...

Image via WikipediaThere has been a few articles the past couple of days I want to briefly mention today. First is this article coming out of Oakland:

AC Transit does 180 on buses

AC Transit is canceling its latest order for Van Hool transit buses after rider complaints about safety and other issues. These are the same type of buses that UTA has ordered for the MAX service along 3500 South.

The problem with having a separate fleet of buses is that you have to have a special parts inventory especially for non-standardized buses like the Van Hool's. Plus they have been a maintenance nightmare for other transit systems. UTA would have been farther ahead to order more Gillig's despite their issues and just paint them a special color and order the wider back doors.

Next is the announcement about the master plan for downtown transportation:

Master plan awaits green light

Most of the plan looks pretty good. I do question allowing bicycles back on the sidewalks except for a limited distance simple because it will endanger pedestrians and we need to make Salt Lake more pedestrian friendly besides more bicycle friendly.

Also if they are going to do the circular buses incorporate the 500 Capital as part of the system and then eliminate the fare free zone. Let the buses (and eventually streetcars) handle the short distance riders freeing TRAX for the longer distance rides.

Next there is some minor articles such as UTA appointing a new board of trustees, a plan to mitigate wetlands damage during TRAX construction, and the story of two sisters protesting gas prices.

UTA votes to appoint Ellertson president of board of trustees

TRAX entities to fix wetlands damage

Sisters protest high gas prices

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UTA Wraps Brand New Bus

Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (Tri-Rail station)
Originally uploaded by gilligguy

I walked out yesterday to get my mail when either the 307 or 320 flew by me on Van Winkle. It was one of the brand spanking new Gillig Advantage BRT look buses and I was disgusted to see that the bus had a full wrap on it.

Now anyone who has read my blog for long knows that I despise them because they are so anti-customer. Just try to look out of a wrapped window (go down to the June 25th entry).

Not only that, but they have wrapped a brand new bus. Transit systems such as the Spokane Transit Authority will wrap buses that need to be repainting because of the damage that can be done to the paint but I guess UTA doesn't care about our expensive capital resources enough.

Reno Comparison...

Now the answer to the question you have been waiting for: How does Reno Ride compare to UTA?

What does Reno do Better?

1. Timed Transfers-Many systems do timed transfers better than UTA. The buses have time transfers at all the 3 transit centers which makes getting across the system easy. When UTA butchered the cross town routes such as 4500 South/4700 South and 3900 South/4100 South, Redwood, and State they made some long waits for transfers. Transit mentality says that the buses run every 15-minutes so that is ok, customer focus mentality says poor service.

2. Fare Boxes-Reno uses a more advance fare box than UTA. Something I have not seen before is that the fare box will issue transfers and day passes which makes a lot of sense. Plus the fare box will validate transfers and day passes to insure they are current. As a side note to this, the system is not set in stone as the driver can over ride in order to take care of the customer in special circumstances.

3. Actually calling their day pass is wrong as it's actually a 24 hour pass. When it is validated by the fare box, you can use it for the next 24 hours. This is a much more customer oriented model than a standard day pass. For example I arrived in Reno at noon and started riding at 1:00pm. I could have ridden the buses the next day until 1:00pm if my schedule allowed.

4. You can purchase a 24-hour pass on the buses. Drivers (or actually the fare box) will issue a 24-hour pass so you don't have to order them special, you don't have to worry about stocking up, in other words a customer can pick up a 24-hour pass and start using it.

5. The fare box validates the pass not the driver. I have had drivers in both Denver and Salt Lake validate day passes with the wrong dates. Then what do you do? After all the driver has no day passes so your SOL.

What does UTA do better?

1. Reno has those cheap anti-vandalism plastic seats with the cushion insets that are not comfortable especially compared to UTA's more comfortable padded seats.

Ties?

Reno and UTA seem to be equal on quality of drivers which is overall good.

Looks like Reno wins. Of course Reno is a smaller system so they do have advantages over UTA, but there is still things that UTA could take from the Reno system to make the Utah system better.



Next up Miami...

My Comments about Weber/Davis County

Last week, I took a trip up to Weber/Davis counties. There was a couple of main reasons why I wanted to head up there: 1. To ride line 626 which I have not had a chance to ride since it was changed several years ago. 2. To ride one of the new Gillig buses that UTA claim are so wonderful and much better than a standard bus.

I will so glad when I can jump on FrontRunner and head up to Weber County but right now it was a trip on the 11 to the 72.

Riding the 72 is nice with the nice Commuter Cruiser MCI buses. However, the driver need some customer service training. While he wasn't unfriendly he was not friendly and when asked the question answered very Borg like and refused to give a straight answer.

On the 626 the driver was friendly to most customers including myself but on the other hand did yell at one elderly lady for standing up when he was stopping at a light and a Junior High student for taking to long to load up his bike on the rack.

All the other drivers through out the day where friendly which is not unusual as most of the drivers I encounter on UTA are good.

The next bus was the 610 and it was one of the new Gillig buses. I do not see much difference between this bus and the 1999 and 2001 Gillig buses UTA has except for seamless windows, new front and rear caps, and a more deluxe cloth on the seats. In addition two of the buses had problems. The first one on the 610 had very back breaks that squealed worst than any other bus I have every ridden. To top it off I got this same bus heading back later in the day. The other problem was the back door was broken on one of them on the 603. Not good for a bus that is only a few weeks old.

Overall ridership on all the routes I rode was good except for the 626. In the morning I was the only customer for more than half the route. Returning in the afternoon toward WSU Davis there was several customers on and off along the whole route so ridership is building.

Another observation was that there was construction on the 612 that is delaying the buses up to 10 minutes. Yet, there is nothing posted on any bus stop sign mentioning that there could be delays which since this will last through the summer. UTA needs to keep its customers better informed on what is happening. (Look for more on this when I talk about Utah County). Customers need to know if their buses are going to be delayed.

Overall, ridership was good on all the routes I rode, most of the drivers where friendly, and the system seems to do the basics of what needs to be done. However, there is plenty of room for improvement in the system and UTA needs to continue providing better service to its customers.

Over the next few days, I will be talking about my travels on UTA over the last couple of weeks. I spent one day in Salt Lake County, one in Davis/Weber Counties and journeyed through Utah County yesterday.

My feelings on wraps are well known, and after being stuck on several buses that where wrapped its time to vent again.I think that the UTA Board of Directors should have to ride a wrapped bus for several hours and try to see out the windows.

A perfect example of what is wrong with wraps is while going through Roy on the 626, I was trying to see what businesses where along the line. The problems is, because of the stupid wrap I could not see about half of the signs. Here they are trying to encourage people to ride the bus but wraps are a turn off.

To top it off, I rode when of their new Gillig buses that are based out of the Ogden division and it was wrapped!! Talk about the height of stupidity in wrapping a brand new bus. Most transit systems wrap buses that are due for repainting or the paint already looks bad. The reason for this is very simple, when the wrap is pulled off, it can often remove or damage the paint despite what the manufacturer tries to claim.

This once again shows that the UTA is often not a good steward of our tax money. In addition the Board of Directors and Management of UTA continue to be too disconnected from their customers.