Danger with the Bus Riders Union

I have mentioned it before but after the complaint session this past week about the service cuts and the calls for a bus riders union, I think it's time for me to go over again the problems I have with it and the problems it can cause especially since I saw some of the rhetoric coming out at the protest.

The biggest thing I see happing is a direct attack on the rail programs. By demonizing the rail programs they create an us versus them attitude which will only lead to failure on both sides. First and foremost the voters want rail and have voted for it twice. Rail construction is not taking away from bus service.

In fact by making blatant attacks on TRAX and FrontRunner they are actually doing more harm than good. If you look at what financial numbers the UTA presents (which are not that great but they are all we have to work with), there are some things that are clear:
1. That revenues have gone up over the last 10 years.
2. That revenues went up substantially when both TRAX lines opened
3. That bus ridership has gone down over the last 10 years (and it started before TRAX).
4. That TRAX gets 14 million riders per year and the bus system gets only 21 million
TOTAL and that includes they entire system.

So what the numbers say is that the two TRAX lines are carrying 2/3rds as many riders as the entire bus system.

What this says is the problem is not TRAX but the bus system and how UTA is running it. Also you have to look at our cities as a whole and why they are not attracting bus riders.

Instead of looking at TRAX as the big evil one take a look at some issues that UTA has:
1. Poor equipment utilization: Ski Buses and Fast Buses are an example.
2. Almost no bus shelters in the system: Considering are weather extremes shelters are needed. Denver is doing a much better job providing shelters. Blame UTA and the cities.
3. UTA is falling into the same transit mentality planning which says duplication is bad (only in the way UTA does it: 307 and 320 on top of each other, the old 11 and 7 on top of each other, the list goes on).
4. UTA by trying to avoid duplication actually worsens it's market penetration possibilities and decreases ridership potential.
5. The UTA has gone to a grid systems. Grid systems have proven they only work if bus service is more frequent than every 20-minutes. While that is good for their new frequent routes, all the other routes are hurting because of the grid design.
6. Where UTA has made people transfer, like on Redwood, State, crosstown routes at TRAX, they did not create time transfers. In fact in some cases the if you are traveling westbound and need to transfer to a route beyond TRAX, the bus you needs leaves 2 minutes before you get there. UTA needs to work on timed transfers.
7. The way the buses like 4500 South/4700 South, 3900 South/4100 South were cut at TRAX also shows that UTA doesn't understand marketing dynamics. Life doesn't end at the TRAX stations it is only a stopping point.

UTA has problems but attacking the rail program is not the solution but attacking the direct issues with the bus system is.

Daybreak an Island???

In just a few years Daybreak has gone from being a wild dream to a very successful development. The development has become very popular and is a shining example of what can be done when using pedestrian and bike friendly development.

However, it seems that the city of South Jordan where Daybreak is based, has not seen the light of what can be done. While Daybreak continues to develop, South Jordan is allowing the Daybreak area to be surrounded by areas that go against the philosophy at Daybreak. I know anytime you talk about a philosophy of development, you always get the ditto head that have been brainwashed to say "social engineering". Well I won't even get into all that today as I have other things to talk about.

The big problem I see is that the surrounding areas are just standard sprawl developments that are not pedestrian and bike friendly. Just take a look at the Boyer development just across Bangerter Highway from Daybreak. The development and the roads to it are not pedestrian or bike friendly.

The way things are developing, Daybreak will end up being an island in South Jordan. While it will be pedestrian and bike friendly, you will not be able to leave the area of Daybreak by foot or by bike because everything surrounding it is auto centric.

South Jordan should be working harder to encourage developments surrounding Daybreak to become more pedestrian and bike friendly. Notice here I am not saying that cars should be banned or anything like that, but the area should be made more friendly to others.

Once Daybreak starts getting bigger and starts developing it's commercial and industrial properties, Daybreak may need to look into becoming it's own city. After all, if the city it is currently part of is going to make it a segregated island, maybe they would be doing better by looking out for themselves.

Complaints...

Bus riders give UTA routes 'F'

First of all a couple of comments:

-What is the one rider along 900 East complaining about? 900 East has every 15-minute service all the way to 6200 South now plus it goes downtown.

-Once again UTA is bragging how ridership increased in Weber and Utah counties after there service was changed. Of course no mention how many actual "riders" or revenue.

-Sounds like ridership is not doing too well. I can tell from experiences on the buses that ridership is down on several routes.

-What will be interesting is what revenue is doing. I would really like to know what revenue per passenger mile is doing because that would really tell you what is happening but sadly the way the system is set up we can't get those kind of numbers.

More on the Sugar house Streetcar

Image via Wikipedia South Salt Lakers favor streetcar link

There is something wrong with the numbers. If BRT will only cost $18 million and the streetcar will cost twice that much, something is not right. It would be interesting to see how many things are being added to the cost of streetcar system compared to the BRT since BRT cost will often be higher if you are calling for the same features.

Also to the guy that says that buses will be quieter than a streetcar, I wonder how you could come up with that conclusion? BRT means buses. Whether it would be Hybrid, CNG, or Diesel it is still a bus and is going to make more noise than a streetcar.

Transit Related Articles...

UTA on track for U.S. funds

Mayoral candidates oppose proposed 600 West TRAX bridge

State Street...

There is a wasteland out there that pedestrians fear to tread, it stretches for miles from downtown all the way to Draper, at one time it was the main route for travelers in the region when it was Route 89 and 91 and nobody had heard of Interstate 15. Today, the street is still there but it has become a waste land of car dealerships, a few restaurants and not much else for miles on. Bad planning has created a street that is not friendly to the pedestrian but is only used by motorist to get from point A to point B.

I have stated before that Murray has missed a big opportunity. When the plans were first announced for the Murray Central TRAX station, there was mention of transit oriented development were pedestrians and transit riders are taken into account. Instead we got a Costco and a hospital complex neither one that is very pedestrian friendly. There is no connection from TRAX to the State Street area or to the west. So much opportunity lost.

Murray is now working on the Murray North Station at 4400 South. Once again we hear great plans for a transit oriented development. We will see what happens but so far the only action is the new Deseret Industries building that is not pedestrian friendly.

Now here is some ideas to improve State Street and make it a more pedestrian friendly area:

1. In areas where TRAX Stations and State Street are close together (1300 South, 2100 South, 3300 South, 3900 South, 4400 South, 5300 South, 7800 South) create planning zones that integrate the two areas to make State Street more pedestrian friendly.

2. Right now State Street seems to be a sea of car dealerships. Car dealerships sprawled out the way they are on State are a deterrent to a pedestrian friendly area. How many people do you see walking down state street from 3900 South to 5900 South? The answer is not many. The City of Murray and to a lesser extent South Salt Lake should work with the dealerships to decrease the car dealerships footprints. Reducing the footprints not only benefits the city by opening up areas to development, it benefits the car dealerships by reducing their property taxes.

3. Look to create green spaces between the TRAX stations and State Street.

By doing this we improve transit oriented development, pedestrian friendliness, and to improve several miles of State Street.

Draper NIMBY Idiots...

Utah Supreme Court to settle Draper TRAX fight

You can tell the people at "Citizens for Responsible Transportation" just hate the thought of big evil TRAX in their neighborhood that they can't even connect the dots and figure out the advocating the State Street route makes them look stupid. Of course all they care about is making sure that TRAX doesn't use the old UP line despite the fact that the line makes the most sense.

For those who actually believe that State street would be a good route for TRAX, I dare you to go to the intersection of State and 123rd South during most hours of the day and see the traffic nightmare created by bad planning and picture adding a TRAX line to the mix.

The UP line makes the most sense...

Transit Related Editorial and Article

The more rails the merrier

10th Circuit Court of Appeals upholds firing of transsexual UTA bus driver

The Battle over 600 West Continues...

Residents opposing a TRAX line down 600 West

MCI on the 307...

This past week a new face has presented itself on the so-called Fast Bus 307. It is the face of an MCI D4500 Commuter Cruiser. That's right the buses that normally see service on such routes as the Utah Counter Commuters, the 472, etc is now on the 307. While the seats are pretty comfortable here is some reason why this is a bad idea from an agency that we have come to aspect bad ideas from.

First of all the bus is not geared for city driving. The gearing on this bus is designed for primarily freeway speeds and short trips on surface streets. The only place where the bus gets to strut it's stuff on the 307 is from 4500 South to 6200 South. Otherwise you are dealing with stop and go traffic that is doing long term damage to the transmission and engine on the bus.

Second, the bus is not designed for frequent stops. You have 4 steep steps that you enter the bus with and there is no back door. In addition the bus has wider seats than a standard transit bus so the aisle way is narrower than a standard transit bus. Despite UTA' s best attempts to kill all local ridership on this route, the line is carrying the local riders that used to ride the 27, 32, and the 44. So in other words there is people frequently trying to get off and on and this bus wasn't designed for it.

Third, the wheelchair lift on the bus is not designed for regular transit use. To load and unload a wheelchair on this bus takes more time than on a standard bus (and significantly longer than a low-floor bus), so the bus is greatly slowed down by wheelchairs. It's like UTA is telling wheelchair customers that they are not wanted on the fast buses because their too much trouble.

Fourth, the bus is 5 feet longer than a standard 40-foot bus. There is a couple of turns along this route is difficult for a 40-foot bus so making a 45-foot foot bus try to make the turns is much worse. In addition the commuter cruisers are taller and have a higher center of gravity than a standard transit bus so it makes the turns all the more difficult.

UTA putting the commuter cruiser on the route is kind of like the UTA throwing the riders of the route a bone for the deep cuts that took place on the route and trying to rebuild the ridership. The problem is a commuter cruiser is not designed for the route.

If UTA wants to put a nicer bus on this route and the other so-called fast buses, it needs to start purchasing Suburban Buses again. Suburban buses are a cross between a regular bus and a commuter cruiser. UTA used to have a large number of these type buses but they were replaced by the MCI D4500's. You would often see them on service on such routes as the 811. They are a standard transit bus but have have raised seating, luggage racks, reading lights, just to set them apart from a standard bus.

I hope the riders on the 307 enjoy their bone while it lasts...

A downtown proposal...

For anyone that has been to Downtown Denver and rode transit, there is two things you see different from Salt Lake City. First you do not have a fare free zone like Salt Lake however, they have the 16th Street Shuttle that serves a good portion of the downtown area. While Salt Lake's downtown area is more spread out than Denver's, the system can work here.

First we eliminate the Fare Free Zone entirely and I will get into the benefits of that later. Second we turn the Capital Shuttle into a operation like the 16th Street Mall. The only difference would be is that the 16th street mall is a dedicated transit mall while this proposal would use mixed use streets.

Here is the proposed route and the benefits of the route:

From the Intermodal terminal via
600 West,
200 South,
-serves the southern part of the Gateway
300 West,
-serves the motels/hotels near 300 west
500 South/600 South,
-serves hotel row along these streets
200 East
-serves the Downtown Library and the new Metro Residential Complex
400 South
Main Street
-serves all the retail along main plus the new City Creek complex and all the office buildings.
North Temple
-Temple Square
State Street
-Brigham City Apartments and the other apartments along State Street
300 North (counter-clockwise) 500 North, E Capital Blvd, 300 North (clockwise)
-Serves the Capital
Main Street
-serves residences along Main
North Temple
-serves Temple Square, Conference Center, a couple of smaller motels
300 West
-Serves the Arena, Radisson Hotel
100 South
-Serves the Gateway
600 South
-Back to the Intermodal Depot.

What has been created is a shuttle that serves all the vital areas of the Downtown Core. Once the Harmon's opens at 100 S/100 E, the shuttle could be rerouted from Main via 100 South, 100 East, North Temple, and State Street to service that vital spot also.

So whats the benefits to the regular bus system?

1. By eliminating the buses stoping at every bus stop they would only need to stop if there is passengers boarding speeding up service.
2. Outbound buses would be wouldn't be slowed down by having to have everyone exiting the bus to pay their fare in the front then load new passengers which really slows down the process.
3. Faster times through downtown because people will not be jumping on the main routes to go two blocks.

In other this will truly speed up bus service and improve bus circulation through downtown.

A trip to Denver....

I spent a couple days in Denver to attend a meeting. This was my second visit to Denver in three months and this time I had the opportunity to explore some of RTD's bus routes.

I arrived in Denver on Wednesday at 8:15pm on Amtrak. I walked off my train, took my luggage and walked over to the light rail station that is part of the Union Station complex and jumped on the train. My hotel was right next to the bus area of the Southmoor Light Rail station so I stepped off my train, walked under Interstate 25 through a well lit tunnel and walked over to my motel.

Between the meetings I got a chance to travel extensively on the RTD's bus system.

Here is a couple of things that RTD does better on it's system:

-They understand the concept of timed transfers.
-There is multiple bus transit centers in addition to the light rail ones. UTA promised these with it's long range plane with the first tax initiative was passed but I haven't seen any yet.
-There is a better security presence on their system especially light rail. While I feel safe on TRAX even in the evenings, there are those that don't feel comfortable. However, you see police and security riding the trains before Sunrise and after Sunset to make customers more comfortable.
-Their call n' ride service is vastly superior to UTA's flex route F94 and UTA needs to look closely at that service.

Well, that's the major biggies. The last week of October I will be spending in Reno so hopefully I will get the chance to test their service and then spend October 31 to November 5th in Miami for Railvolution so I will be able to compare those systems to the UTA.

Off to Denver Again...

I will be leaving on Amtrak's California Zephyr for Denver tomorrow morning and will return on Saturday. I will be running around extensively on Denver's transit system the RTD so I will of course have some comments either Sunday or Monday depending on how I feel.

Buses are not Light Rail

On my morning walks I often see the 307 and 320 so called "fast buses" heading toward downtown. While they may be doing better along 700 East mainly because everything else has been slaughtered in this major corridor, it seems like those two routes have less people on them than before the bus service cuts (OK, not scientific). So why is this?

Well it looks like they looked at the success of TRAX which is doing extremely well and decided to emulate it. So they cut out a bunch of the stops and stopped serving the neighborhoods. However, the market for buses and the market for TRAX is different and cannot be applied the same.

Let me use the poor 320 and the previous route 21 as comparisons. The old 21 used to travel through Sandy neighborhoods then make a bee line for downtown. OK it was a little slower than the current 21 but not by much especially when you consider that the 320 has been running late frequently.

So the new 320 eliminated all the stops in Sandy and along Highland Drive so now people have to either walk long distances (and there are lots of hills in the area) or drive their cars to the park N ride lot then board the bus instead of walking to a bus stop and getting on. In other words the service is not convenient.

The 320 has loss a large amount of its market. Not only does it not service the neighborhoods anymore but all the bus service in the area is gone. So in other words the UTA has force people either to drive to park n ride lot, walk long distances or in many cases just go ahead and drive because its more convenient.

In addition if people do take the bus into to town they can't live until the evening rush service starts because there is no bus service along Highland Drive except at 9400 South.

The Fast Bus system has made buses less flexible, less convenient, and less marketable thanks to the bus cuts.

Unhappy Passengers...

Today I had the opportunity to talk to some people I know that used to regularly ride the 21/32 and now ride the 307/320.

First of all they complained that the buses have been running late every day and that drivers are complaining that the schedules have been made so tight that they cannot stay on schedule. In fact the buses have been averaging anywhere from 15 to 20 minutes late. So in other words they eliminated all the stops but they are taking the same amount of the time to do the route.

Another affect that apparently was not considered was that the new routes would be making more stops since all the other buses along 700 East have been cut, passengers from the 27 and 44 are now forced onto the new routes which slows down those supposed "fast buses".

The problem that occurs too many times with transit planning is that lines are look at individually instead of considering a systematic systems approach where you see if you change Route A, how that changes Route B.

We will see what the next few months bring us...

Airport TRAX controversy

Railroaded by train plan?

Apparently there is 12 houses along the right of way of 600 West. Some say that TRAX will increase crime but that seem disingenuous since this is area is already has a crime problem. In fact they would get a street that is in much better shape that it currently is since street work improvements even if they are not needed for the project usually get "added" in.

If it is built down 600 West the connection for the Intermodal Depot down 600 West and 400 South will be critical as it will allow for people to travel from the airport to hotels/motels along the Hotel/Motel Corridor.

Photos of my first trip on the new system...

Here is pictures I took from my trip on Monday on the new systems first "real" day.

Here is the 1995 Gillig Phantom bus I rode from 1300 East/Spring lane to the 7800 South TRAX station. As I mentioned the driver was not friendly at all. Apparently the 213 turns into the 525 when it reaches the station.


Next, here is a TRAX train at the Historic Sandy TRAX station. This was the train behind the one I rode.

Here is the Flextrans bus they are using for the F94. They did paint F94 Sandy Lift on the bus but next stop buzzers have not been installed yet. I told the one lady that they should take some lessons from Denver's Call N' Ride which is much more useful than the F94. However, I was impressed with the number of riders on the F94, but that could be because the 207 no longer serves the station and the 33 is gone.

Photos of what we lost.....

Here are some pictures I took on Friday of routes that are no more and streets that have no or useless service.

Here is two photos of Route 44 at South Union and 1300 East heading toward downtown.




Here is a picture of Route 33 heading Southbound on 1300 East at about 7400 South. This routes cut can be directly contributed to the poor redesign done during the first TRAX line opening. Running this but all the way from 1300 East to TRAX was about the biggest blunder of the big blunders that UTA has done. Yet, UTA planners are not held accountable for this route's failure.


The last two are a couple of pictures of the late Route 32. OK, the route is now Fast Bus 307 but only runs peak hours only toward downtown in am and back in the pm. Plus a majority of the bus stops have been discontinued. In fact in the second picture you can see one of the bus stops that will no longer be used despite the bus turning at this point.





Tomorrow unless there is some earth shattering news I will post photos of yesterday's trip to Alta View.

The Draper NIMBY continues the fight...

Draper TRAX fight bound for high court

It's interesting to talk to Draperites. Old time Draper residents (including my in-laws) support the old UP right of way because it's the best route for the line. Then there are the new Draper Whiners like Pugh who don't won't the big evil TRAX trains near their Taj Mahals. Apparently they are so poorly built that they will shake apart if a TRAX train comes near. So what happens when some bozo with he radio blaring that creates more decibels comes by?

First Business Day of the Bus Changes

Well today was the first business day dealing with the new bus changes. I got nauseated listening to Justin Jones on KSL tell how great this new system is. Of course the guy can be smug after all even though he was in charge of it he will not be held accountable if/when it proves to not be a success. Now if Jones was willing to put his job on the line against the performance of the changes that would mean something. Of course then it would be tied to ridership which of course is a meaningless number.

Then there was John Inglish making his pitch. He said he took route 346 from his Draper Estate to the TRAX station. He said that there was many more riders than normal. Define many more! Of course he failed to mention that the 346 was one of the first experiments in "Fast Bus" and has already had service cut because it was a failure. Maybe he's afraid of losing his bus route.

Interesting is that I had to take a little journey today because my wife had an doctors appointment at Alta View Hospital. Now the easiest way for this to happen would be for me to take the 32 right near our apartment to where she works in an office at 3500 East/Bengal Blvd behind Smiths. But that's right no more 32, that's why my wife can't take the bus anymore, scratch that one.

So I decided to meet her at the hospital. Normally I would walk and take the 45 over to TRAX but decided to take the direct way this time to see how the bus routes were doing.


So I rode the 213 from 1300 East/Spring Lane to the 7800 South TRAX station. Of course the 213 was the 11. I got to the bus stop about a minute before the bus was due at 4500 South. I waited, and I waited, and I waited until finally the bus came running about 10 minutes late.

Strange thing is there was only 2 passengers on the bus which used to carry more than that. Could it be that the bus has loss ridership because it no longer goes downtown and has poor connections to get downtown? Hum??

Both passengers got off by 6400 South so I was along on the bus with a female driver with absolutely no personality. She either needs customer service training or needs to find a new job. Along the whole former 27 portion of the route there was not a single passenger. Once again, could this be because there is not direct link to downtown anymore? Every time I rode the 27 (and it used to be frequently) it at least had three or four passengers on this section so where were they? I addition we saw both the 207 and the 201 which were running empty.

I then took TRAX to the Historic Sandy TRAX station. From here I had about a half hour wait for the F94. The cutaway van showed up and it actually had a good load and two other people got off at the hospital with me and total ridership on my short section 7 passengers. Not bad for a route that had no off peak service for a year and has a joke of a headway (every 80-minutes). There was a driver and a helper on the F94 and they both were extremely friendly. The one lady helping the driver (who is out of the Flextrans fleet and didn't know how to do transfers) mentioned that they are talking about another Flex route for Draper. I will go into detail about the F94 and comparing it to the Denver Call N Ride later in the week.

Who and remember about all the people UTA had out to help you today? At 1:00pm when I started this trip I did not encounter one UTA person out to help. Not a single one at either TRAX station just the lady on the F94 who was actually there to help the driver. So I guess they only cared about the commuters and not the people during the day.

Well we will see what happens....

It's Official...

Today the UTA bus redesign took effect. But don't worry there will be lots of UTA people out tomorrow to help you. The only problem is that they will primarily be at TRAX stations and downtown plus a few other places. Oh and they will be on the buses also. So what's wrong with that?

Well where they plan to have people is where people transfer off of buses onto TRAX or another bus or have already arrived at there destination. Of course at least they will have people out there because there will be a lot of confusion and many of the drivers will not be helped because they more confused than the passengers.

Too bad gambling is illegal in Utah or we could have a pool on what UTA's 2008 revenue would be.

Logan Woman Guilty

Judge finds Logan woman guilty of trespassing at bus stop following birth control remark

More Ridership Crapola from UTA...

Counting riders bedevils UTA

Does anyone find it interesting that all this just happens to be coming out the week they make the big bus changes?

As I have stated before ridership numbers of meaningless. What really matters is revenue, load factors (something that UTA doesn't even figure out and would be hard until they start doing a better job of assigning buses), revenue per passenger mile, equipment utilization, etc.

Apparently they need ridership numbers for the national database--BIG DEAL and also for federal funds. Now since operating funding was eliminated years ago why do they need ridership numbers? Apparently for preventive maintenance funds. Makes no since at but if there is something that make less sense that the UTA its federal programs.

Oh well, tomorrow I will be out taking pictures of some of the lines that will be no more tomorrow.

Work on Commuter Rail South...

Design work progressing on south commuter rail

Broken Promise Land....

Remember the vote that was held in 2000? Not only was there to be a terrific expansion of TRAX service but also we were to see expanded bus service. If you will recall the UTA at the time showed the expansion of service over the next 20 years.

Well here we are at 7 years and what have we seen? The number of bus routes going down and starting next Sunday a severe cut in bus service (oh that's right, according to the UTA's propaganda machine its a reallocation of service).

Yet according to the map from 2000 we would see expansion of service including new service along 7200 South and 9000/9400 South, more transit centers, the new 6200 South bus traveling all the way to Cottonwood Corporate Center, extension of service along 5600 South, etc, etc, etc, etc.

Instead service is being cut to useless on 7200 South (Fort Union Blvd section), we have seen no transit centers, service along 9000/9400 south is a joke, the new 6200 route only services the westside, no extension of route 84 (sorry new route 54) to the east, etc, etc, etc.

So where is our expansion UTA?

FrontRunner Testing...

UTA's FrontRunner is making trial runs

FrontRunner goes for a slow test spin on Davis County tracks


Also here is the picture of the interior of a Bombardier car like UTA will be using. This one is in service on Metrolink in Los Angeles. Don't let the empty car fool you, I was the first passenger on the train at the end of the line station and this four car a train was standing room only 3 stops down the line and it was a Sunday!!

Transit Related Article

2 UTA execs spent $47,000 on travels

Transit Related Articles

UTA plans gatherings on system redesign

Logan Transit Getting Unwanted Publicity....

77-year-old vows to fight for her free-speech rights

The Bad idea: Bus Riders Union

It looks like there are people here in Salt Lake City with the help of Utah Jobs with Justice trying to form a Bus Riders Union. They are using the example of the Bus Riders Union in Los Angeles.

Well here is everything that is wrong with that. The BRU in Los Angeles got early publicity by using the race card saying how bad bus riders are treated (the irony is that the executive director of the BRU is white and makes a six figure income). They filed a discriminate lawsuit against the LACMTA that runs LA's transit system and MTA settled instead of fighting creating the consent decree.

The BRU was an interesting organization. It was part of an extreme left wing "social justice" organization. They started by trying to force General Motors to keep their San Fernando Valley manufacturing plants open. While they kept them open for a while the plant eventually did close.
While the BRU was an extreme left wing organization it was often help by anti-transit right wing extremist organizations in order to stop rail transit. This included a former employee of the Southern California Rapid Transit District (that became the LACMTA with the merger with the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission) and another LA County Transportation Commission member that became a highway lobbyist. There was also a connection with the Heartland Institute right wing think tank that gets most of its funding from Wal-Mart, CITGO, and Exxon.

With the consent decree the BRU kept LACMTA from raising fares, buy a large number of new buses, and add routes some of which made no economic sense. They also tried to demean rail transit as being racist and other race card attempts.

The consent decree has finally expired and but not before a lot of damage was done. Over the 10 years of the consent decree the BRU lost its credibility especially after supporting the bus drivers instead of its "riders of color" who had no alternative during the strike. While the people the BRU was supposed to be helping couldn't get to work Eric Mann drove to work in his brand new BMW.

While I think that UTA has made mistakes and is too typical of transit systems across the country that operate themselves as government monopolies and treat their riders as so, the BRU is a bad idea. After 10 years the LACMTA is worse off than it was before. Service is having to be cut in many areas. We could end up with a system that covers only West Valley and Salt Lake and other areas loose service and that's that last thing we need.

Timetables for FrontRunner and TRAX line construction..

UTA sets tentative 2012 date for Provo-Salt Lake commuter rail

UTA setting end dates on TRAX construction

-Good luck with the first article as it appears that the Deseret News is having troubles with their website today.

It looks like in three and a half to four years we could be riding TRAX to Daybreak and another year and they will add the line to West Valley. That same year you will be able to travel on Front Runner from Salt Lake to Provo. Think they will have enough common sense to run the trains through Salt Lake and not have them operate as two separate lines??

Update on FrontRunner

UTA Welds Last Rail Between Salt Lake And Ogden

It looks like UTA is moving along with the FrontRunner project. The last time that I surveyed the line there was still many sections without rail so they are moving along quickly.


Here is a picture I took last November of a Metrolink train that I rode from the Anaheim station down to Irvine in Southern California. UTA will be using the same cars but different locomotives.

I have taken a few trips on Metrolink in the last year and have found the Bombardier cars to be extremely comfortable, smooth riding and quit for the most part. The seats are nice for short journeys (I would not want to ride on them for more than a couple of hours but for commuter trains their great).

In a few months we can ride the cars here!

UTA introduces family pass

UTA begins selling a $10 family pass

Yes there is some good ideas that come out of UTA headquarters.

UTA's new trip planner...

OK, I was wanted to see how the trip planner for the new bus service is working. Since I will be taking Amtrak west out of Salt Lake in October, I decided for the heck of it to see what routing it would give me. I put in there that I needed to arrive by 10:00pm and here is the results it gave me:

1. Walk to stop located at 1300 E @ 5158 S
2. Board Route #213 - 1300 East/1100 East To 7800 S TRAX at 7:12 PM
3. Get off at stop located at CENTER ST @ 95 W at 7:31 PM

Then

1. Walk to stop located at CENTER ST @ 95 W
2. Board Route #701 North/South TRAX Line Northbound at 7:36 PM
3. Get off at stop located at FIRECLAY AVE @ 71 W at 7:45 PM

Then

1. Walk to stop located at FIRECLAY AVE @ 71 W
2. Board Route #45 4500 South To 3900 S P&R at 8:05 PM
3. Get off at stop located at 3900 S @ 3401 E at 8:28 PM

Then

1. Walk to stop located at 3900 S @ 3401 E
2. Board Route #39 3900 South To 3900 S TRAX at 8:46 PM
3. Get off at stop located at 3900 S @ 1080 E at 8:58 PM

Then

1. Walk to stop located at 3900 S @ 1080 E
2. Board Route #209 - 900 East To Intermodal Center at 9:58 PM
3. Get off at stop located at 300 S @ 600 W at 10:31 PM

Walk to your final destination of INTERMODAL CENTER SALT LAKE

Wow, it would only take me three hours to get to the Intermodal Depot that is only 25 minutes or less by car. Oh and remember that I put in that I needed to be there by 10:00pm and it shows me getting there at 10:31pm!!

To top it all off look at the bus routes it gave me. Here is some ironics....

1. The 45 is only a few blocks walk for me.
2. The bus up highland drive is a 20 minute walk.
3. Notice it would have me go all the way from the Murray North TRAX station to Wasatch and 3900 South then proceed (same bus goes from 45 to 39) back to 900 East to catch the 209.

I think the computer guys still have some work to do on this new system!!

Trip Planner for post Aug 26 is on line.

UTA offers riders trip planner for redesign

Deseret News Articles

Leadership style of UTA board is under fire

UTA Board of Trustees

TRAX ridership numbers pit UTA, critics

TRAX ridership

Web site pushes transit-tax plan

West Jordan TRAX Line Final EIS Done....

Final EIS

Link to the Final EIS for the West Jordan TRAX line.

UTA service on Pioneer Day...

Today was Pioneer Day so UTA ran Sunday bus service. While that was nice for its drivers what about its customers?

I don't know about you, but a majority of the people I know still had to work today except for two people and one works for the state and the other runs his own business like I do so he took the day off.

However, I know many people who had to work today because their companies don't recogize it as a holiday because their based outside Utah. Even though my wife works for a company based in Salt Lake City her company still worked today because a majority of the companies they do business with are based outside Utah.

So many of these people who had to work today had to drive or get rides since there was almost no bus service. Once again UTA does not take their customers into account when making decisions.

It seems like UTA assumes that everyone should have the day off. However, it is mostly the state and church employees who have it off, not a majority of the population. UTA needs to start taking these things into account.

New Bus Schedules Out....

Today UTA released the new bus schedules for the bus redesign. Remember its this glorious new system that will get people to downtown faster yet not get many riders to where they need to go. Ironically, today UTA said ridership has dropped significantly this year, are they going to try to make the post August 26 look better than they are? Of course revenue will tell the real story.

Here is one example of how this new system works. Lets look at the current 32 soon to be a the useless 307. Instead of providing all day service it will only provide peak service to downtown in the morning and back in the pm. No more riding the bus for my wife since her office is at the end of the 32 so she needs to go the other direction.

According to the new timetable the new 307 is 6 to 7 minutes faster than the current 32 so from Golden Hills and Wasatch to Downtown will take 38 minutes instead of 44 or 45. Think people are going to go running to the bus since its soooo much faster? Didn't think so. How do they save so much time? By eliminated a majority of the bus stops south of 6200 South and all other stops north of there that are not at major intersections. So in other words they won't have to stop to pick up passengers. Then of course the buses sit for most of day wasting valuable capital resources.

However UTA is still being stupid. The new 320 that replaces the 21 would once again be run on top of the 307. They will run from 6200 South all the way to downtown just a couple of minutes apart. The scheduler who planned this should be terminated for gross stupidity. Since the buses are running every twenty minutes they should be 10 minutes apart but that would take common sense and marketing experience.

Now its not so easy to compare the 21 and 320 since the current 21 does not go into the 9400 South Park in Ride lot before heading down Highland Drive (the route will naturally will be faster since it does not service the neighborhoods to pick up its customers..most of whom rode from the neighborhoods), so instead we have to use Fort Union Blvd to Downtown. Here the current 21 takes 29 minutes and the 320 will take 22 minutes so a difference of 7 minutes.

It will be interesting to see what revenue does over the next year.

Schedules available tomorrow....

According to the UTA website, then new schedules that will go into effect on August 26th will be available on the website tomorrow.

Forget Ridership Numbers Check Revenue.....

By the time the next round of bus changes takes place in December, you can expect the UTA planners and the board of trustees to be bragging on how much ridership has gone up since the bus changes. However, as I have pointed out in the past, the ridership number is meaningless. Because more people will be forced to transfer under the system, ridership will naturally go up but that means nothing because they have no way to account for transfers and how many trips people actually make.

Instead we should all be looking at the total revenue brought in by fares. In 2006 the UTA brought in 24,627,104 in fares during the year. Of course 2007 is not going to be a good indicator since the changes happen 2/3rds of the way through the year. However, in 2008 there should be a substantial increase in revenue or they UTA has not had a major increase in people taking the bus, they are just using voodoo accounting to make themselves look good.

The only way to tell if this changes are effective is if UTA's revenue increases to at least $30 million for fiscal year 2008. However if that number could be low depending on what happens to gas prices of the next year.

Just remember when UTA says that ridership has gone up .....% since the changes, the number is meaningless.

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Monopolistic Customer Service

Here is a follow up on my trip to Denver last month.

For those of you that didn't read my blog about it, I had a business trip to Denver so I ordered a day pass from RTD in Denver. Well after few weeks in had not shown up so I had to buy two of them when arrived in Denver at the Airport.

However, the driver on the AT bus punched the wrong date and because they don't get to carry them I was out of luck.

So I emailed RTD and stated what happened. About a week later I get an email from someone at RTD saying that they got my pass back so they sent it back out again and I received it. Since I will back in Denver in September I figured I would use it then and ordered a second once since I will be there two full days and it arrived a few days later.

Then about a week after I got it I received another email from RTD saying they would refund me for the missing one. I emailed back and told the situation.

Then I get this email from some guy at RTD:

researched your order and you indicate in your e-mail that you ordered 2 day passes toward the end of May. I see that order, but it was only for ONE day pass, not two. There was a second order for the same item in June:

Order 1 – Shipped 5/25/07 to:

Salt Lake City UT 84117
US United States

Order 2 – Shipped 6/26/07 to:

Salt Lake City UT 84117
US United States

I show both passes were successfully mailed and were not returned here by the USPS. If you think they were lost in the mail, please complete a complaint with the US Postal Inspectors office. You can download a form from http://www.usps.com/postalinspectors/mailthft/2016.pdf
Or you can complete your complaint online:
https://www.usps.com/postalinspectors/mailthft/mlntrcvd.htm
We can re-issue the lost pass after we receive a copy of your completed complaint:
RTD DO-M2
Attn: Gary Googins
1600 Blake Street
Denver, CO 80202-4909

I emailed him back gave him all the information and I never received and email back.

Can you imagine that, telling your customer that they would have to file a complaint and the company would do nothing? I'm sorry but a company with good customer service would have taken care of the situation, that's how you keep customers.

However, I will gladly sign a consulting contract with RTD to show them how to properly take care of their customers since clearly they need it.

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Bus Bridge This Weekend....

UTA closing section of TRAX on weekend

So what kind of reception will UTA get?

UTA asking 6 counties for tax hike

Rainer Huck and his wrongness....

Huck For Mayor

Talk about a guy is so wrong it is laughable. Look under his ideas for transportation and you will see that this guy is against people having freedom to choose what transportation they want and he uses blatant lies to support his contentions.

Lie Number 1: Roads support themselves transit doesn't.

Only if you listen to the road warriors. But here is something that is not factored in there: State Patrol, Local Roads, Police, Fire that handle the accidents and that is just the start. Plus where is the money going to come from to repair all the roads that are getting in such bad shape? Not from the Highway Trust Fund because it can't handle all the needs.

Lie Number 2: Transit increases terrorist activity.

Excuse me, but what was used in Oklahoma City? What is being used in Iraq against our troops? Last time I check its motor vehicles. The truth is that cars are so prevalent that they are much more dangerous than transit.

Lie Number 3: Transit is more dangerous because of infectious diseases.

Oh give me a break this guy is insane!! Unless you are going to sit in your home and avoid all human contact then you have a danger of catching a disease. Give me a break. Ever go into a store? Ever go to a movie? Ever go to work?

Then he tries to came environmentalist want to stop people from having cars. Darn he did not say transit advocates so I could make that lie number 4. After all, I am a transit advocate but I don't hate cars. But transit provides a needed alternative to the car. I have the freedom to choose how I travel while Huck would take that freedom away. Cars? I like cars, in fact I would love to have a 1970 Shelby Mustang GT500KR Convertible or a 1959 Cadillac El Dorado Biaritz Convertible in my garage any day.

Oh well, in '99 we had Dr. Ken Larson running and his extremism, I guess we have another this time.

TRAX Holdup in front of Transit Police Station...

Cops chasing gunman in TRAX station holdup

Isn't this bus stop right in front of the offices of the TRAX police?

Is Fast Bus Going to Work?

During the cuts last year UTA introduced this great new bus service to the valley called "Fast Bus". What UTA did was turn the former 48 in the 327, the 46 into the 346, and create a new route number 313. The concept was to get people to downtown faster. In fact it would be a big part of the changes that will come in August.

If the first three lines are any indication we are heading for a failure.

Lets remember that the 48 line was already a success. UTA did one smart thing and that was reroute the line to Daybreak. The they turned around and made it limited stop. However the 46 line was already a weak performer but Fast Bus was going to make it a much better route.

Well if they did such a good job with the 313 and 346 why are they essentially discontinued? Oh yeah the 346 will still run but it will not go downtown instead it will terminate at the Historic Sandy TRAX station. Why don't they just go ahead and restore the stops since their admitting the 346 was a failure.

The 313 that will be running after August 26 is a different animal that the current 313. Instead of heading downtown it will go to the University of Utah instead. So once again UTA would admit it, but the line was a failure.

The question once again has to be asked, who is held accountable in the fact that these routes failed? Will any planner be held accountable? Of course not.

As I have said in the past, the Fast Bus program is like the ski bus service, a major waste of capital resources. Fast Buses sit all day in the yard after making a trip or two while the ski buses sit 8 months out of the year.

We will see what the next year brings us. Of course we there is a bunch of proposals for changes next year, the board of Trustees will say well we made a mistake and approve changes. They will not hold the planners accountable to make a working plan.

Will we end up like Orange County, CA and slowly change many routes back? Time will tell.

Is UTA a social service?

During the public hearings for the bus cuts, one of the UTA's people made an interesting statement when he said that UTA "was not a social service".

So what is it? Lets look at UTA's Mission Statement:

"Utah Transit Authority strengthens and connects communities enabling individuals to pursue a fuller life with greater ease and convenience by leading through partnering, planning, and wise investment of physical, economic, and human resources."

Looking at the mission statement of UTA gives the impression that it is indeed a social service.

Interesting note, if you consider how many areas that will be left without bus service or useless bus service, it kind of makes you question if the UTA is "enabling individuals to pursue a fuller life".

So where does a majority of UTA's revenue come from? Well looking at their budget it does appear that it comes from tax dollars. So in other words the UTA is not a self-reliant business. I guess you can get into all kinds of philosophical discussions on what makes something a true social service but looking at their mission statement and at their budget tells me that they are indeed a social service.

I am not saying if this is a bad thing or not. But when UTA representatives get up in front of people and tell them they are not a social service, they should get called on the carpet for it. Unless UTA wants to change the way it does business, it shouldn't try to be something its not or admit what it truly is.

Deseret News Editorial

Thumbs up to funding mass transit

Hard hitting excellent editorial pointing out the hypocrisy of the road warriors and of course many members of our state legislature.

Don't Forget....

The new UTA fares go into effect tomorrow. UTA did not post any bullitens about the fare increase until last Monday so some people may be taken by surprise if they don't follow transit politics.

Mountain View Corridor Land Getting Expensive

Corridor land price prohibitive?

Here is one issue that you will rarely here road warriors talking about. It cost a great deal of money to buy enough land to build a freeway. Not only is the freeway expensive to build as it is, but land acquisition can also cost a bundle. Add the rise in land prices here in the Salt Lake area and you have a nightmare in the making.

However, this could turn into trouble for transit plans because the first place the road warrior members of the legislature will do is steal money from the transit fund in order to boost spending on highways.

Watch out for your pockets...

The Lonely Bus Stop Shelter....

Here is the bus stop shelter at the corner of 8680 south and 300 East on the southeast corner. It is currently served by the 24 route however after August 25 will be like the 900 West shelters, unused and forlorn. I used this bus stop for almost a year and a half as I lived in apartment just a block and a half from this bus stop.

Talk about a nice apartment, just three really short blocks to Historic Sandy TRAX and a short walk to a bus. Too bad the apartment went down hill or we may still be there then again the bus will soon be gone and you will have to cross the 700 East Superspeedway to get to the bus stop soon. As I recall this is the only bus stop shelter on the entire line except for the TRAX stations. UTA is one of the worst bus companies I have rode (Spokane Transit Authority may actually be worst) when it comes to have to shelters. Then they turn around cut the service to areas with shelters leaving them unused.

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-This story from Logan is very interesting. I wonder if the ACLU will get involved in this one. After all the Logan system is a 'free' system. They can't say that she did not have a fare or anything, and frankly she can say anything she wants to. I did notice in Denver they have signs on their buses that you can be removed for saying offensive things and it could include jail time.

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Transit Tax Hike??????

Weber OKs vote on a transit tax hike

Voters in December will get the opportunity to vote to increase taxes for roads. However, they are calling it a transit tax which gives no money at all to transit. It is 100% a road tax. ]

Will the voters get confused and think they are actually going to get transit improvements with these dollars? Are they calling a transit tax because it has a better chance of getting approved?

The only REAL transit tax may be in Box Elder county where they are trying to get a ballot initiative passed to extend Frontrunner to Brigham City.

New Bus Stop Line Number Signs

Here is a couple of the new signs telling customers what route number service a bus stop:



Pictures are copyrighted protected.

(Sorry the pictures don't show the symbols really well especially on the 207 sign)

It looks like UTA is using green and a little indicator that indicates a route that runs every 15-minutes which is a step in the right direction. However I rather see something like Portland does and put on a special sign below the main sign that boldly announces that the bus stop has frequent service promoting that service much better.

Notice that the sign for the 207, mentions nothing that service is a pathetic every 60-minutes off-peak. Every sign should say the frequency of the line, days of the week it runs, and especially if its peak hours only. Continue to note it runs later in the evening should also be noted.

I also want to point out the two other symbols. One is a no smoking sign and the other is a accessible sign. Now is the no smoking one supposed to tell people not to smoke around the bus stop? That would be nice but how many people do you think will actually pay attention? I hope that UTA is not trying to tell its customers that the bus is no smoking since I've never heard of transit buses that allow smoking but I am sure they existed 50 years ago.

The accessible sign is also funny. While its nice that they are letting customers know that the bus is accessible, the last time I checked since the 1980 era buses where retired a few years ago every bus but one in the entire UTA fleet is accessible, the exception being the historic bus which isn't used in regular route service.

Now, if only UTA would start getting more information out there so people will be better informed when change day comes but that's another story.

Why I Hate Wraps....

As regular readers to this blog know, I am no fan of bus wraps. Wraps are an insult to its customers who have to try to see through them.

Today I had a meeting in Sandy so I rode the 40 to TRAX and finally the 24. The 24 was a 1999 Gillig Low Floor and yes it had a wrap. However I was able to go toward the back of the bus and found that the third set of seats from the back had a window that was only half wrapped. Well low and behold while waiting for the bus to leave I got the bright idea to take a picture so everyone can see the difference between wrapped and non-wrapped.

Picture Copyrighted, All Rights Reserved

Nice 50/50 picture don't you agree? Which part would you rather have the opportunity to look out of? This is why wraps must go.

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Transit Trip to Utah County

On Monday, I took a trip down to Utah County to check out the Provo River Trail and to ride the transit system and see how it is doing while BYU is not in main session.

The first bus of the day was a Gillig Low Floor and wouldn't you know it, it was wrapped!&!%!

Next I took the 832 over to the trail. For those of you who have not had a chance to check out the trail, it is a nice trail although it needs to be wider, especially when it goes under roads. Under University Parkway it is too narrow for two humans to pass easily much less if one of them is on a bicycle. However the section of the trail I walked was all covered by mature trees which makes a nice walk in the morning before it gets to hot.

One of the things I noticed is that more than a few stops had the bus stop signs covered by trees or otherwise hard to see. UTA needs to do a better job of making sure their bus stop signs are not covered up and are visible. Also, some shelters would be really nice but no, having shelters along 900 West where they killed service is more important.

Also, half of the bike riders that where riding the bus did not put the bicycle rack back in its home located when they got their bikes back. The best example of customer service I saw was on trip where there was already two backs on the rack, the driver allowed the third person to bring his bike on the bus. I will not say who it was because that driver would probably get in trouble for not following the rules even though he was providing excellent customer service.

Ridership was week except on the 830 which is always a busy route and the 850. In fact the 850 had a pretty full bus, with three loud teenagers, a gang member, and some woman who got on and started talking to someone who wasn't there. Oh well, another day on the bus.

The 811 coming back was also an adventure. It was another Gillig Low Floor and wrapped, however the wrap was torn where I sat so I did not have to deal with the crap. The bus started to overheat and shut off when we got to the American Fork exit. It shut off a few times more as the driver tried to force it to keep going. However, once we left the Lehi area the bus did not give any more problems.

One more note about that bus. Not only was the wrap torn but the my window was also broken. Once again it shows that customers are low on UTA's priorities.

It was another interesting adventure on the UTA, once again showing that UTA has many areas it needs to work on.

Deseret News Editorial

Transit subsidies are worth it

Well here is the editorial response to yesterdays article.

Hatchet Job in Deseret News

Are rail plans worth it?

Well it looks like the extremist in the Legislature are out rattling their sabers in order to advance their agenda.

Some points I would like to make about the article:

First of all it was poorly researched.

Here is the biggest example:

The author claims that it cost the same for a mile of light rail as it does for a mile of freeway. Not unless where talking about unusually situations like in Seattle where it is more a heavy rail system than light rail. In most cases a light rail cost about the same as a lane mile of freeway but now the entire freeway. One of the problems of dealing with cost is that politicians add cost to light rail such as urban renewal and other pork that does not have anything directly to do with the line itself but often gets included.

There is always the people prefer cars argument. Well cars may still be a majority of trips but when compare corridor to corridor the figures change. What the road warriors do is lump all traffic on a highway and say...see light rail isn't carrying that much. Yet, the highway numbers including trucks plus people just traveling through. What you won't here is a comparison of people traveling within the corridor and if you do they try to spout of some gross generalizations of the market.

What I always love is statements like Dougall makes in the article. "Cars represent freedom" they try to portray cars as apple pie yet if people like Dougall had a choice they would take your freedom away. Your freedom to choose your from of transportation. Right now you have the choice to ride transit but if Dougall wants your that freedom taken away from you.

Then there is the biggest argument for the investment in transit. It is what the taxpayers wanted. Apparently John Dougall is so arrogant, that he believes he knows better than you do on where transportation dollars should be spent. Obviously he doesn't think much of the voters who put him in office.

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The 3500 South BRT Plan

One of the many projects the UTA is currently working on is two BRT projects, the Orem/Provo line and the 3500 South. The UTA has a request for proposal out on the 3500 South BRT line so construction is expected to start soon.

So what is BRT? Well that is a very open question. It can either be priority on traffic lights to dedicated right of way. What BRT promoters try to claim is that BRT is light rail at lower cost. However, most BRT projects that are in operation are barely limited service bus routes and only a couple are what many would consider comparable to a light rail line.

So what will the 3500 BRT line be like? Well, it is nothing but a glorified limited stop service. What the system will have is signal prioritization, frequent service, and few bus stops. So the buses will still deal with traffic, and will only be about 10-25% faster than current service. Currently the 37 (soon to be 35) takes 53 minutes to travel from Magna to Salt Lake City. The BRT on the other hand will only take 40 minutes. In other words you will only save about 13 minutes.

Since the BRT line will basically follow the route of the 35 there will be no new markets created by the line. While speed might create a slight ridership increase, there will not be a big increase in market forces because the route doesn't do anything that the current route does. My proposal was to run the route from Magna to the University of Utah which would have created new market forces, a new route matrix and actually brought new riders to the fold. Lets see the difference with that service. Under current conditions the bus takes 1 hour 38 minutes not counting the transfer from the 31 to the 14 (the 37 and 31 are through route so the bus just stops at TRAX, changes route numbers and continues). Now using the same 20% savings you are looking at 1 hour and 10 minutes which is a 28 minutes savings (also assumes a more direct routing). Not a huge change but the route would create a new matrix because it provides service where no existing service travels.

The BRT will most likely do nothing but rob ridership off the local Magna Route along with some ridership of the neighboring bus lines. Despite the fact that Metro Rapid has been praised as a super success story in Los Angeles, ridership numbers shows that the lines have done little but rob the local service in the area of riders. Because all but a couple of the Metro Rapid lines parallel existing service, no new matrix dynamics have been created. In fact even the CEO of the Los Angeles Metro agency has said that Metro Rapid is not creating ridership increases.

UTA could probably do more with precious resources by following the lead of the Portland Tri-Met. Take the high ridership lines line the 37, and redo bus stops so that the curbs conform to Low Floor Buses, make sure there are no bus stops on top of each other, and use exclusively low floor buses on those routes. This will do more to speed up the bus service at a lower cost than the BRT scheme, yet do the same thing as the BRT scheme.

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The Day Pass

Yesterday I talked about the Call A Ride program that I liked over in Denver that the local transit system the RTD is operating. Today I am going to talk about the day pass that RTD offers like UTA but like UTA makes them difficult to get.

Both RTD and UTA only have day passes available in certain places. The way I have purchased day passes from both companies was on their websites. However at least UTA ships out your purchases when the next business day, however RTD only ships twice a month. I purchased my day pass about a week before there site says they will ship. The ship date was almost a two weeks before I was due to leave. However, my departure date came and went with no day pass showing up (in fact, it has never shown up).

Fortunately RTD has a counter at the Denver Airport (which UTA does not) so I was able to buy a couple of day passes there. However, the bus driver on route AT punched the 6th on my day pass instead of the 7th so I was screwed.

Compare that to the Metro in the Los Angeles area. When I was in Los Angeles in March I rented a car for one day because my uncle lives in an area that would have taken hours to get there by bus. I returned the car the next day and took transit to my meeting. I just board the Metro bus and purchased the day pass and I was on my way.

If RTD drivers where able to sell day passes he could have replaced the one he screwed up on with a new one but because RTD doesn't allow the drivers to sell them, I was screwed. UTA also does not allow drivers to sell day passes which is the opposite what many other transit organizations are doing around the country.

UTA and RTD should be making day passes easy to get. Its a matter of making the transit system easy to use for your customers. In addition making it easy to use also means that people from out of town are more likely to use your system. With car rental prices going through the roof even worse than gas prices, transit systems have a good opportunity to get more people on the system.

So how about it RTD and UTA, lets make day passes easier to get?

Denver's Call A Ride

As I mentioned yesterday, as part of my journey in Denver I had the opportunity to ride Denver's transit system including the Dial A Ride. The picture above is of the Dial A Ride bus at the Dry Creek Station after it had dropped me off. I had already ridden this bus over to the motel about an hour earlier. All the people in the picture are actually attending the dedication ceremony of the new bridge that brings people from the light rail station, across Interstate 25 to the east side of the freeway and past the new park n ride lot.

The only other bus service in this area is the 77 route which I also took, but it only runs primarily during the peak periods.

The concept of the Dial A Ride is that it will be at the light rail station approximately every 30-minutes. Once you board, you just tell the driver where you want to go and you are on your way. Now when you want to be picked up you either tell the driver or you can also make a call up to an hour before you want to be picked up.

This is an excellent alternative to fixed route bus service in areas that are in close proximity to a light rail station (or it could be any transit center but then again we don't have many non-TRAX transit stations). UTA is half a.. doing this with the route along 9400 South after the big changes. However, it will still try to maintain a schedule and a route where a Dial A Ride has a certain coverage area and the only timepoint is to be at the light rail station every 30-minutes. One of the downsides of the RTD system in Denver is that there is no schedule on when it will be at the station but I never had to wait. Apparently it sits at the station until it needs to pick up people.

The only downside of the system for me was the hours. While it was great coming in from the airport and heading to my meeting, because it stopped running at 8:00pm I had to walk back to the motel after dark. However, at least it wasn't UTA who would have probably stopped the operation at 6:00pm like they do with many bus routes.

I think the Dial A Ride would be great for areas like Sandy, the Sandy industrial area, and several others. Daybreak is planning to have shuttles once TRAX heads out there and that would be a terrific place to have this kind of operation.

The Denver operation is run by contractors in the case of the one I road it was operation by Laidlaw Transportation. This type of operation will probably only be economical was a contracted service which means the bus drivers union will scream bloody murder. I have no problem with contracting so long as the transit system properly overseas the operation to insure quality service to its customers. However, most transit systems that contract do not have good oversight and considering how UTA does not take its customers into account in many instances, I would not hold my breath on adequate oversight.

Call A Ride is an innovative system and it is something that needs to be looked at not only at UTA but other transit systems as well.

My Trip to Denver

Well, I know that Google Peak Oil and maybe some other people are ready to hear about my trip over to Denver. I said I was trying to do the trip all transit so how did I do? Well actually pretty good except my wife did give me a ride over to the TRAX station to avoid a 20-minute walk to the bus stop in the rain, and then picked me up at the train station since it gets in at 11:30pm.

Well my wife took me over to the Murray Central TRAX station where I rode TRAX to 3900 South and caught the 56 bus over to the airport. It went well, as I only had a duffel bag, garment bag with my suit, and my back pack with laptop in it.

I am glad I only had a short ride on TRAX since it was full. There was only one sit available and some ugly woman sat on the aisle side of the seat and refused to let anyone sit down. Now if I was traveling farther I might have been tempted to tell her off but who cares.

Next I took a Southwest Cattle Car over to Denver running 40-minutes late due to weather. Would this make you mad, you get a "A" boarding pass, wait three and a half hours for your plane (including delay) then watch as a couple in the "B" line has a friend red cap who goes over to the podium and gets them a pre-boarding pass. Neither of the people needed help plus there was already 5 wheelchairs, a blind person with dog, and several couples with little children boarding. Every time I fly into Denver, I encounter some of the worse turbulance of my life and this trip was no exception. At least this time the girl next to me did not loose her breakfast all over the place.

Originally I had 55-minutes from the time my plane landed to the next RTD Airport Express would leave heading my direction but because I had only 15-minutes it was a mad dash. Add the fact that the day passes I ordered never showed up so I had to get some at the airport plus get my duffel bag from baggage claim. Suprisingly I actually made it to the bus at the nick of time. Good thing I read headsigns since there was two AT route buses leaving at this time. One goes to a wrong area but I watched and caught the right one.

The AT bus took me to the Nine Mile Light Rail Station where I got a G line train to the Dry Creek Station where a bus took me to my motel. This bus is what is called a Dial A Ride which I will talk about in another post either tomorrow or a couple of days. Oh I bought two more Day Passes from the airport RTD counter but the driver on the AT bus punched the wrong day so I was screwed for today!

I then road the E line to the D line out to the end of the line at 30th and Downing. I would not want to be in this section of town after dark as it had lots of boarded up buildings. Then I took the D line back the Convention Center and walked to my meeting. After the meeting I walked by to the Convention Center Station and caught an F line train back to Arapahoe Station where I walked the mile and a half to my motel since bus service ends at 8:00PM in this area and it was now 9. I was actually trying to find a convinience store but did not find one on my walk back.

The next day I took RTD route 77 to the Dry Creek Station and proceed to ride the entire RTD light rail system. The line I was along follows the I-25 freeway and opened back in November while the other line goes along the main line of the BNSF down to the infamous town of Littleton. I also went to Union Station, picked up 3 sets of train tickets, then rode an historical trolley run by an historical society. It turns out this trolley will only be operating its long route for a couple of more weeks because the majority of the route is becoming RTD's new westside Light Rail Line. However the historical trolley will still run along the Platte River and its a nice little ride. I then returned to Arapahoe Station, caught the 77 again and rode it to an area where I saw some restaurants, ate, bought a couple of things for the night and headed back to the motel on the 77.

The Next day I walked about a mile back to the Dry Creek Station and caught an E line train back to Union Station and rode Amtrak's California Zephyr. The scenery along this line is outstanding, however we had a lounge car that was badly in need of refurbishment. In addition the head server in the dining car named Rose was a monster who made children cry and treated adults like they where children. Beyond her the rest of the crew was friendly and after 14 hours of outstanding scenery we arrived back in Salt Lake City 45-minutes early.

OK, except for the rides from my wife, the entire trip was via transit. In September my wife will be going with me as I have another meeting in Denver. This time we have a motel that is right at the light rail station.

Overall, RTD does somethings better than UTA, some things worse, and others just as bad like UTA. Like the Dial Ride, I will discuss these things over the next couple of days depending on what happens news wise.

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