KSL Article

Planners explore possibility of TRAX north to Davis County

Front Runner South

Here are Daily Herald and Deseret News Articles about the Front Runner South Ground Breaking:

Iron horse makes a comback

FrontRunner South line work to begin

TRAX Closure...

TRAX train Salt Lake City, Utah
Originally uploaded by jmdspk

Just a reminder that TRAX service will once again be interrupted south of 7200 South on Sunday due to construction of the new State Street Bridge.

It looks a little funny on the UTA website because it says that TRAX service will be interrupted Weekends and Sundays. Only last weekend did they interrupt service on Saturday the rest of the interruptions will only be on Sundays.

However, when you first get on the website before moving on to the actual news release it looks as though they are saying TRAX will be closed weekends and Sundays as though Sundays are not part of the weekend.

About the picture:

A couple of weeks ago I had an appointment in downtown on a Friday morning so I took some pictures of TRAX construction on the Intermodal extension. After taking pictures of the construction I drove pass the Arena station and saw the decorated windows on one of the TRAX cars sitting there on a University train so I snapped the picture.

Oh and before someone jumps down my throat for not riding the bus to downtown, I had another appointment in an area along Highland with no bus service (if the old 8 was still running that would have been a different story...).

UTA YouTube Video

I was looking for any videos of UTA on You Tube and this was the only one I found. Interesting, apparently it was for a public relations class at the U and was done before TRAX opened in 1999. Funny listening to the guy say that he didn't think people were going to ride TRAX, but then again there was a lot of naysayers back then.

Miami Day 3

Day 3 started out earlier than yesterday. In fact I was out of my room and at the transit center by 6:45am. I wanted to get an early start tomorrow in order to be ready for tomorrow when I had to leave even earlier in order to arrive at Railvolution on time.

Today I wanted to travel to the far reaches of the Metro-Dade system in order to get the best looks I could at the Miami area and its transit system. I took route 16 from the Omni transit center to the 163rd Street Mall. The route traveled along Biscayne Blvd, one of the main north-south streets then it travels NE 6th Ave, NE 125th Street/123 rd Street, NE 16th Ave, NE 159th Street, NE 15th Ave, then loops around the mall that is part enclosed mall and part strip center. The "transit center" is a area behind the mall with bus areas. Not a very inviting center to say the least.

My next route was the 91. I will not even begin to describe this route a s it zig zags along multiple streets, does a loop and makes a U-turn. Just like the 16 I drew another NABI low floor which are no better than UTA's Gillig Advantages.

This route does go by the stadium that the Miami Dolphins play in. I got off at the intersection of NW 82nd Ave and NW 186 Street and here you can see a picture of my 91 bus after having dropped me off.

Next I waited for the 282 bus which is also referred to as the Hialeah Gardens Connection. It was very fitting being from Utah that the corner was taken up by a large LDS church, one of two I saw on my trip.

This route goes through residential, office complexes, light industrial, commercial and finally heavy industrial areas before finally ending at the Palmetto Rail Station. This bus was the only non-NABI low floor I rode in all my Miami journeys. The bus was from Blue Bird and it was one adapted to transit use from a school bus. The bus was painted like an old trolley car but was not a trolley replica bus. However, the seats were high back cloth with nice cushions which made it the most comfortable bus I rode in Miami.

I originally planned to continue my bus riding from here but I looked down and saw route 41 but could not find a route 41 bus and it was supposed to leave in one minute. Then I looked again and I was supposed to take the 87 to the 41 but by the time I realized that the bus was pulling out and I wasn't looking forward to spending another hour on a NABI low floor so I decided to catch MetroRail down to Coral Gables, my next destination.

I got off the MetroRail at the University Station which is the home of the University of Miami. Here you can see a couple of shuttle buses I took a picture of while going down the escalator.

Here is another University of Miami cutaway shuttle passing the MetroRail Station.
Next I took the 56 bus to the Biltmore Hotel. Here is a picture of another 56 going by just after I exited the my 56 bus.

Here is a picture of the Biltmore built in 1932.
Next I walked along De Soto and took a picture of the Venetian Pools.
Coral Gables is considered a "walking community" but I will comment on that in the future. I left De Soto and walked down Andalusia/Biltmore Way, Segovola, Alhambra and the Ponce De Leon. Here is a picture of Alhambra Circle before it hits the business district.
I had not had anything to eat and since it was past 1:00pm, I was getting a little hungry. I was still craving Chinese like yesterday but did not have a lot of luck finding a place. I finally decided to hop the free Coral Gables fake trolley and take it back to MetroRail unless I saw someplace to eat along the way. The bus was pretty full the whole way but slowly emptied out at Village at Merrick Park. Once we turned off of Ponce De Leon onto Ruiz we were delayed for 15-minutes because trying to pick up a garbage container that goes on the back of a truck. He couldn't get the thing to roll all the way up onto the truck. After about 5 attempts he finally got it far enough on the bed of the truck that the bed lowered he moved the truck. Here is a picture of the fake trolley along with the guy that was behind him.
Next I took MetroRail down to the Dadeland South Station. Good thing I was traveling southbound at this point as there was no trains moving northbound at the moment due to a stalled train. Here is a picture of my train arriving at the station.
One I got off at the station you could see my destination which is the Dadeland Shopping Center which is an interesting multi story structure that includes a Target. To the left is some new condos that have been built with easy access to the MetroRail.
Once I got to target I got a pizza from the Pizza Hut located in the Target to satisfy my huger. After doing a little bit of shopping I headed back onto MetroRail to Government Center, caught the MetroMover and head back to the Hotel. I wanted to rest this evening since I had my big presentation at Railvolution the next day.

Well that's day 3 down, tomorrow is a trip to Miami Beach for Railvolution then more bus riding.

Route Changes...

Picture: the late route 32 at its layover at 3500 East and Bengal just a block from my wife's office that she can longer get to by transit.


Route Changes

It is that magic time again called Route Changes which will take place on December 16th.

There is nothing really earth shattering about the changes but here is some interesting tidbits.

Route 9: The portion along 1100 East is gone and the route will travel directly down 900 East. This restores service along the entire portion of 900 East to 6200 South.

Route 228: Here is the biggest shocker: the route will travel Murray-Holladay Road to 1300 East and then return to Cottonwood Mall just like the old 52. Now who could have expected that? After all, I took bets that the people behind Cottonwood Mall would scream bloody murder because they don't want the bus down their precious little street.

Of course the bad thing is, once UTA starts giving into the NIMBY's, when will it stop?

Route 307 and 320: Guess what? Coordinated every 10-minutes service from Vine to Downtown!! It's about time instead of having the buses on top of each other.

Now what UTA needs to do is dump having separate schedules for the two routes and combine them in one folder since it's a waste of money having two folders. Then show the combine 10-minute service in the schedule. Next promote having every 10-minute service in bold letters on the front of the timetable (of course make it clear that it is during rush hours only reverse commuters SOL).

While full time service still needs to be restored at least this is a step in the right direction to creating more market matrix service.

Street Car Part II

PDX0353
Originally uploaded by NeiTech

In my first post about possible streetcar routes we talked about expanding on the concept of the Sugar House trolley to make it even a more useful route.

Today's picture is little closer to home than Barcelona as it is from the Portland Streetcar in Portland, Oregon which was the first modern street car line put in.

Our next route proposal will replace part of Route 9. It will start at the Intermodal depot and travel on 600 West to 700 South to 400 West. Along 400 West it will briefly travel the route of the expanded Sugar House Trolley but then turn again on 900 South.

It will travel 900 South until 900 East were it would branch.

Branch one will continue traveling on 900 South to Guardsman Way, then travel Guardsman Way until it meets up with the Medical Center TRAX line and follow that route to the Medical Center.

Branch two will travel along 900 East, 1300 South, 1500 East, and then either turn on 1700 East to Foothill or continue on 1500 East, travel through Sugar House Park and connect up with the Sugar House line. From there it could continue to 2100 South TRAX station and make another connection with TRAX.

There is several positives about this route.

First the section of 900 South from 400 West to 200 East is ripe for quality redevelopment especially affordable transit oriented development.

Second both branches would service the 9th and 9th business center, and the second branch would service the 15th and 15th business center.

The only downside is that NIMBY's along some of the eastern half may bulk at having the streetcar.

Don't Hem in TRAX at Daybreak

Planning continues on the West Jordan branch of TRAX which will travel from the Fashion Place West station to the new community of Daybreak.

If you look at the UTA maps on the Environmental Impact Statement is shows nothing but empty land in the area. However by the time TRAX makes it to Daybreak there will be a town village taking shape. Looking the the models that are present in the Daybreak Welcome Center, it shows the line ending in the center of the commercial area but having no way to be extended.

However it makes no sense at all to hem in TRAX so that it cannot be extended in any direction. Kennecott Lands has lands for many miles to the west and eventually plans to develop it. An extension of the TRAX line as this development seems natural but will not be able to happen under the present plans.

Daybreak is an outstanding concept, a beautiful community (that I hope to be living at in a couple of years) and showing that even in conservative Utah a forward thinking community can be built. Lets make sure that the TRAX line is built with the same future in mind.

UTA: Bring Back the Day Pass!!!!

In 2003 UTA eliminated day passes except for the "roundtrip" tickets purchased at TRAX stations. This put the use of day passes out of reach for most UTA customers especially those who live in counties outside of Salt Lake County. The excuse for doing this was that too many people where abusing the system by not marking off the dates when they rode TRAX. So in other words, because a minority of the people where abusing the system and because TRAX was not adequately enforcing, all had to suffer.

This move is opposite of what most transit agencies are currently doing. Most transit agencies are actually eliminating transfers and using day passes instead. While I am not for eliminating transfers day passes are an important ingredient to getting casual riders on transit.

I am a perfect example of the rider that UTA is losing. I cannot take the bus every day due to the lack of good bus service between where I work and live. When I work to six o'clock the last bus leaves at 5:45PM but there is night ride but it doesn't start till 7:45pm then I have to walk a half mile to get to it, ride the bus about a mile and walk another mile home. Just doesn't pay.

But there is many times I can use the bus, especially on days I am not working. But there is not day passes so I would have to pay full fare and get a transfer that is only good for 2 hours which means I would have to pay three or four times.

However even when UTA offered day passes you could not purchase them on the bus. To get one you either had to go to a place such as Dan's that sold them or once again go to a TRAX station. I would buy a few day passes at a time and have them ready for when I needed them. This makes it difficult for the customer. A better system is the one where there is a section on the regular transfers that bus drivers issue that you can punch it and it becomes a day pass. Yes this system can be abused to but then UTA has an issue with the driver not the system. I like Portland because it uses this system and made it much more convenient to use the bus.

UTA needs to get more people on the transit system. The best way to do that is get make sure the system is as easy to use as possible. The day pass makes using the system easier.

New 30-Foot Buses-Where should they be?

The UTA is now recieving its purchase of the Opus 30-foot bus. These buses are designed for routes that do not have large amounts of ridership or for areas with tight turns and such.

So far UTA has assigned the buses to Ogden and to routes 1 and 2 in Salt Lake. They will also be assigned routes 442 (which will now interline with route 2) and route 23. However I have already seen these buses running route 7.

In one way assigning the buses to routes 1 and 2 make sense. They travel through the avenues and they do have some narrow streets and tight turns on these routes. However, in another way it makes no sense to assign these buses to this route. I have ridden these routes several times and almost every time I ride them they have a large load. Because these routes service LDS Hospital they attract a large amount of people traveling to the hospital in both visitors and employees who ride the bus. In fact, I have seen 40-foot buses run with standing loads on these routes so they will probably have to pass people up with the 30-footers. Relief will come somewhat from reroute route 3 and will give riders more options to reach the hospital.

In fact the question needs to be asked, considering the ridership on these routes are the 30-footers being assigned to this route because of the geography or because of NIMBYism. It seems like in the recent round of changes such as to route 40, the UTA is giving into well off NIMBY's and stabbing their regular riders in the back. Hopefully UTA will not become like Metro in Los Angeles that will do anything a whiny NIMBY wants no matter how much damage it does to bus or rail service.

UTA has needed smaller buses for many years but went by the philosophy of not wanted too many different types of buses. However, this train of thought is quickly loosing favor as transit systems realize that they have to have different buses for different purposes.

Hopefully as UTA gets more of the new buses it will start assigning them to routes that truly should be using them such as the 90/94, 24, 33, 14 (although now interlined with the 20 it won't work), 222, 345, 46 and others.