My Proposed UTA Restructuring-Route 112

My proposed restructuring of Utah Transit Authority Bus Service

Route 112:

From the Magna Transit Center (proposed) via 2700 South, 8400 West, 3500 South, Market Street, 3650 South and 2700 West to the West Valley Transit Center. Then via 2700 West, 3500 South/3300 South, 900 West, 3875 South, 700 East, and 3300 South to the Millcreek TRAX station. Then via 3300 South and Wasatch Drive to the Wasatch Transit Center (proposed).

Replaces: Routes 31 and 37.

Frequency: Monday-Saturday: 15-minutes, Sunday 30-Minute

Buses: 60-Foot Articulated Buses

Route will part of the bus inhancement program.

Deseret News Letter to the Editor

Here is a letter to the editor in today's Deseret News. Although they have it wrong, as the tax increase will build light rail lines, they are right in the fact that UTA is cutting its own throat by treating bus service as a second class citizen.

Bring back Sandy bus service

I have lived in the Sandy area long enough to have been a very active participant in voting for and encouraging nonvoters to vote for a tax increase to fund the Utah Transit Authority's drive to get bus service started in the Salt Lake Valley. I've watched it grow to serve neighborhoods in Sandy. I now regret having helped in any way, because I see bus service totally pulled out of the same neighborhoods where I stumped for votes.
Many who grew dependent on the service are now unable to get any service. Taxes continue, the service is gone. East to west travel is impossible for people with disabilities. Now UTA wants us to increase our taxes to fund a line north to Ogden.
I will encourage every former bus rider in Sandy and elsewhere to vote no until this promised service is restored. Val Evans
Sandy

Vehicle fee rises $10

Vehicle fee rises $10

Extra funds to be used on future road corridors in Utah County

By Jared Page
Deseret Morning News

PROVO — Utah County motorists will pay $10 more to register their vehicles beginning July 1.
The Utah County Commission on Tuesday unanimously voted to adopt a $10 motor vehicle registration fee that will be used to preserve future road corridors.
The fee is expected to generate about $2.6 million annually for Utah County to use for advance acquisition of rights-of-way for corridors of regional significance.

My Proposed UTA Restructuring-Route 109

My proposal to revamp Utah Transit Authority bus service.

Route 109:

From the Magna Transit Center (proposed) via 2700 South, 9150 West, 3100 South/Brud Drive/3100 South and 2700 West to the West Valley City Transit Center. Then via 2700 West, 3100 South, Redwood Road, 3500 South/3300 South, 900 West, and 2100 South to the Centerpointe TRAX Station. Then via 300 South, 2700 South, Connor, Atkin, 2300 East, Lakeview, 2900 South, 2700 East, Louise, Valley Street (3300 East), 3300 South and Wasatch Drive to the Wasatch Transit Center (proposed). Then via Wasatch Drive, I-215, Foothill Drive, Sunnyside, Arapeen, Komas, Wakara, Foothill Drive, Wasatch Drive, South Campus Drive, Business Loop, South Campus Drive, University and 100 South/North Campus Drive to the U of U Medical Center.

Frequency: Monday-Saturday 30 minutes, Sunday 60 minutes. Provides alternating service in conjunction with Route 4 from Wasatch Transit Center to South Campus Drive and University.

Buses: Cutaway Van Buses (upgraded to 30-foot buses when ridership warrants).

Replaces: portions of routes 13, 14 and 37 (but largely new service).

Dixie's growth triggers traffic logjam

Dixie's growth triggers traffic logjam

My Proposed UTA Restructuring-Route 107

My proposed restructuring of Utah Transit Authority bus service.

Route 107:

From the West Valley Transit Center via 2700 West, 3500 South, Decker Lake Drive/Decker Lake Lane, Parkway Blvd, Decker Lake Blvd, Printer's Row, Redwood Road, and 2100 South to the Centerpointe TRAX station. Then via 2100 South, Parley's Way, I-215, and Wasatch Drive to the Wasatch Transit Center (proposed).

Replaces portions of Routes 31, 34, 35 (old), and 42.

Frequency: Monday-Saturday 30-minutes.

Buses: 40-Foot Buses.

My Proposed UTA Restructuring-Route 106

My proposal to revamp Utah Transit Authority Bus Service.

Route 106:

From 3500 South and 5600 West via 5600 West, 2100 South (South Frontage Road), 3200 West, 2100 South/Pioneer Road, 1700 West, Redwood Road, and 2100 South to the Centerpointe TRAX station. Then via 2100 South, Parley's Way, I-215, and Wasatch Blvd to the Wasatch Blvd Transit Center.

Replaces route 30.

Frequency: 7 Days a week every 30-minutes. Will provide alternating every 15-minute service from Redwood Road and 2100 South to Wasatch Transit Center in conjunction with route 107.

Buses: 40-Foot Buses

My Proposed UTA Restructuring-Route 103

My proposed restructuring of Utah Transit Authority Bus service.

I have given you my proposals for local bus routes that will service downtown Salt Lake City. The next set of bus routes are ones that will primarily run east-west that will not head into the Central Business District. You will notice many of the routes are similiar to what is running today with some changes.

Route 103:

From the Magna Transit Center (proposed) via 2700 South, 8000 West, 2820 South/Parkway Blvd, 5600 West, 1730 South, 5070 West, 2100 South, 4800 West, 1730 South/1820 South, 3230 West, 2100 West/Pioneer, 1700 South, 700 West and 1300 South to the Ballpark TRAX station. Then via 1300 South, West Temple, 1700 South, Wasatch Drive and Sunnyside to Hogle Zoo. Then via Sunnyside, Arapeen, Chipeta Way, Wakara Way, Foothill Drive, Wasatch Drive, South Campus Drive, Business Loop, South Campus Drive, University Drive, and 100 South/North Campus Drive to the U of U Hospital.

Frequency: Monday-Saturday 30-Minutes, Sunday: 60-Minute.

Buses: Cutaway Van Chasis buses (upgraded to regular buses when ridership builds).

Replaces: Replaces portions of routes 30, 56, and 66.

Sandy to buy land for TRAX station

Sandy to buy land for TRAX station

SANDY — The city is planning to purchase about three acres for a possible commuter-rail station at 10000 South.
The proposed station could attract business to the area, city officials say. The station would be just west of I-15 in an area zoned for large-scale office buildings, said Nick Duerksen, Sandy's assistant director of community development.

My Proposed UTA Restructuring-Route 50

My proposal to revamp Utah Transit Authority bus service.

Route 50:

From the Intermodal Depot via 600 West, 200 South, 400 West, 400 South, State Street, North Temple, Redwood Road/500 South (Davis County), North Davis Blvd, 400 North, 200 West/400 West, 2025 North, Frontage Road, and West State Street to Main.

Replaces portions of route 18

Frequency: Monday-Friday 30-minute, Saturdays and Sundays 60-Minute. Will provide alternating 10-minute service along North Temple.

Buses: 30-Foot Buses.

Residents split over TRAX tax hike

Residents split over TRAX tax hike

While I am a big supporter of TRAX and have been since day one, presently UTA cannot even provide good bus service. How bad will the bus system suffer in order to put in additional TRAX lines and does UTA even care?

My Proposed UTA Restructuring-Route 43

My proposed restructuring of Utah Transit Authority Bus Routes

Route 43:

From the Intermodal Depot via 600 West, 200 South, 300 West, North Temple, State Street, 400 South, Emery, California, Redwood Road, 1700 South, Pioneer, 3200 West/1820 South, Bangerter Highway, Lake Park Blvd, 4800 West, 4715 South, 4620 West, 5400 South, Cougar Lane/4800 West, Skye Drive/9800 South, Centennial Parkway, through Southtowne Mall, 10600 South, State Street and Sego Lily Drive to the Sandy Civic Center TRAX station.

Frequency: Monday-Saturday 30-Minute, Sunday: 60-Minute

Buses: 30-Foot Buses

Replaces portions of new route 48, also route 42 and 90.

Build More Roads...Utah County

Fixing I-15 begs new Utah Co. side roads

9400 South TRAX station gets a name

Rail stop dubbed 'Sandy Expo'

My Proposed UTA Restructuring-Route 40

My proposal to revamp Utah Transit Authority bus service.

Route 40:

From the Intermodal Depot via 600 West, 200 South, 300 West, North Temple, State Street, 400 South, Redwood Road, 900 South, Pioneer, 3200 West, 2100 South Frontage Road, 2700 South, Old Bingham Highway to Hawley Park Road.

Replaces: Portions of Routes 30, 34, and 41

Frequency: Monday-Saturday 30-Minutes, Sundays 60-Minutes

Buses: 30-Foot Buses

My Proposed UTA Restructuring-Route 37

My proposed restructuring of Utah Transit Authority Bus Service.

Route 37:

From the Intermodal Terminal via 600 West, 200 South, 400 West, 400 South, State, North Temple, Redwood Road, 15000 South, 3200 West, 14400 South, 3600 West and 13400 South to Bangater Highway.

Freqency: Monday-Friday 30-Minute, Saturday-Sunday 60-Minute. Will provide cooridinated 10-minute service from Downtown to North Temple and Redwood in conjuction with routes 3, 36, and 50. Will provide coordinated 15-minute service from North Temple and Redwood to 10400 South in conjunction with Route 36.

Buses: 40-Foot buses but will eventually need 60-foot buses.

My Proposed UTA Restructuring-Route 36

My proposal to revampl Utah Transit Authority Bus Service

Route 36:

From Intermodal Depot via 600 West, 200 South, 400 West, 400 South, State Street, North Temple, Redwood Road, 10600 South, through Southtowne Mall, and 10000 South to the Sandy Civic Center TRAX station.

Special Note: Yes this is the same as what UTA proposed in their bus cuts by my proposal continues service to Riverton which the UTA is going to cut.

Frequency: Monday-Friday: 30-Minute Saturday and Sundays: 60-Minute

Route will provide coordinated every 10-minute service from Downtown to North Temple and Redwood in conjunction with routes 3, 37, and 50.
Will provide coordinated every 15-minute service along Redwood Road in conjuction with route 37.
Will provide coordinated every 5-10 minute service from Sandy Civic Center TRAX station to Southtowne Mall in conjuction with multiple lines.

Buses: 40-Foot Buses. Eventually 60-Foot Articulated buses will be needed along this corridor.

So will the name get changed???

New rail's name has unexpected gay links

Utah County Rail Service?

UTA hopes to rent Union Pacific rails

A day riding the bus.

The fuel pump went out in my car so today I had to spend the entire day riding the bus and as anyone who lives in Salt Lake knows, we had some interesting weather today.

Riding the bus would be no big deal except for the fact that one of the errands I had today involved picking up paper work at a place that is a far walk from the nearest bus stop.

The day started out with catching the 11 bus at Spring Lane and 1300 East which was due at 4500 South at 8:57AM. The bus arrived close to on time and we where on our way. While a few snow flakes fell from 3900 South on, at 1700 South it look as though we had entered another world as we hit the main thrust of the storm. Not only was it snowing hard but with the he wind, visibility was bad and the roads become covered almost instantly.

I was impressed with most of the auto drivers as they did slow down and where actually being considerate. The only exception was one idiot near the U of U who turned left right in front of the bus. However, he got an unpleasant surprise as he raced up the hill only to get stuck with a bunch of other cars.

Showing how some routes have too much running time, despite the slow going and all the snow we still arrived on time at the ZCMI Center.

My next bus was the 34 which turn out to be one of the CNG buses. This was the first time I have ever ridden one of these buses and smelled CNG when the bus was moving.

After my long walk I boarded a 43 bus. When the bus approached I thought it wasn't the 43 because it said GARAGE but then I saw a paper sign in the window saying 43. This is the first time I have encountered a non-working headsign while riding UTA.

My next three buses I rode where all on line 31. The first one was one of the articulated buses on a route that should have them. Of course these buses where ordered for the express routes so have the nicer seats in them which is a pleasant treat.

The next route I took was the 10 which I caught northbound at 3300 south at 1:53PM. The driver was the one of only two bad drivers I had today (the next driver was the other). He was extremely unfriendly and is a poor asset in trying to get people to ride the bus.

After visiting my mother in her nursing home I rode the 30 over to Sugerhouse and caught the 8 in order to pick up my vehicle. The 8 had a good load of mostly Judge High School students but for the most part they where pretty respectful.

Here are my overall comments:

1. UTA needs to be getting more bus stop shelters built. With our extreme weather in Summer and Winter, UTA' s customers need protection from the elements. Isn't it interesting that the only shelter I was able to use today was in front of UTA headquarters!

2. Running times need to be looked at on some routes.

3. No bus should go out with a broken headsign. There was buses sitting at the UTA Meadowbrook facility so why did a bus go out with a malfunctioning headsign?

4. While it is not under UTA's control, UTA needs to work with cities and the county on sidewalks. I walked probably 4 miles today and only a small portion had sidewalks (mainly 500 East and Sugerhouse). People are not going to ride the bus if they can't conveniently get to the bus.

Overall, the day went well. However, UTA still has a lot of work to do before it is going to attract more customers to their bus system.

UTA unveils 'FrontRunner'

UTA unveils 'FrontRunner'

While the name does not bother me that much after all it will traveling along the Wasatch Front so Front Runner does make some sense (but not a whole lot), all you have to do is look at the group put together to come up with a name. Why in the world would you put a group of Engineers and Marketing people together to come up with a name? Also, how much where they overpaid to come up with a name?

Transit agencies are famous for overpaying for this kind of stuff. In 1980 when the Southern California Rapid Transit District was looking for a new logo they paid someone something like $600,000 to come up with a logo and it look like he took the Philadelphia transit system logo put to pieces on it and said you where supposed to see the arrows inside.

It would have created more interest in the community to hold a contest to come up with a name for the new system. Not only would have it cost less but it would probably be better than the name that was chosen.

"I taking TRAX" rolls of the tounge, "I taking Frontrunner!" just doesn't work the same.

Then there was the comment about people thinking TRAX and UTA where not related. Lets see, same ugly paint scheme that was the product of another goverment project, and the UTA logos. Maybe its the fact that a ton of people ride TRAX but the buses suffer from not enough passengers (on many routes), or is it the fact that TRAX cost so much less to operate per passenger mile (of course that also can be attributed to number of riders on the buses).

The truth is the only problem is the current poor state of the bus system operated by UTA. Changes need to happen to make the system more usefull and friendly to use. Then there would be no confusion about the system.

My Proposed UTA Restructuring-Route 33

Proposed Restructuring of Utah Transit Authority Bus Service.

Route 33:

Route 33 will run in a loop covering West Salt Lake City. From the Intermodal Depot via 600
West, 200 South, State Street, 900 South, West Temple, and 1300 South to the Ballpark TRAX station. Then via 1300 South, Montgomery, Glendale, Illinois, Emery, Mead, Navajo, Indiana, Aparapahoe, Cheyenne, 500 South, Redwood Road, 400 South, Cheyenne, 200 South and 600 West to the Intermodal Depot.

Frequency: Monday-Friday: 30-Minute, Saturday: 60-Minute

Buses: 30-Foot Buses

Replaces routes 16 and 17

My Proposed UTA Restructuring-Route 31

Proposed Changes to Utah Transit Authority Bus Lines.

Route 31:

From the Intermodal Depot via 600 West, 200 South, 300 West, North Temple, State Street, 400 South, 300 West and 2100 South to the 2100 South TRAX station. Then via 300 West, 3300 South, 1200 West/1300 West, Atherton, 4700 South, 1175 West, Murray-Taylorsville Road, Canal Street/1300 West (Temple Drive), 12600 South a loop of 1830 West, 12800 South, and Redwood Road, then via 12600 South, 1300 East, 14400 South, 3600 West and 13400 South to Bangater Highway.

Frequency: Monday-Friday 30-Minute, Saturday 60-Minute

Buses: Cutaway Van Chasis Buses

Route would replace a portion of former Route 12 otherwise largely new service.

Commuter Train News

Commuter-rail system on track

My Proposed UTA Restructuring-Route 29

Proposed Route Reorganization of the Utah Transit Authority.

Route 29:

From the Intermodal Terminal via 600 West, 200 South, 300 West, North Temple, Main/Columbus Street, Panther Way, State Street, South Temple, Main Street and 3900 South to the 3900 South TRAX station. Then via 3900 South, 300 West/Commerce Drive, and Vine to the Murray Central TRAX station. Then via Vine, Murray Blvd/700 West, Main Street, Wasatch, Monroe, South 255 West/South 240 West, and Sego Lily to the Sandy Civic Center TRAX station.

Frequency: Monday Through Saturday 30-Minute

Buses: 30-Foot Buses

Replaces portions of routes 23, 442, and 25

My Proposed UTA Restructuring-Route 27

Route 27:

From the Intermodal Depot via 600 West, 200 South, 300 West, State Street and Vine to the Murray Central TRAX station. Then via Vine, State, and 7720 South to the Midvale Center TRAX station. Then via 7720 South, Main/700 East, Sandy Parkway, and 10000 South to the Sandy Civic Center TRAX station.

Route will replace portions of Routes 22 and 27.

Route Frequency: Monday-Saturday 30-minute service. Will provide alternating 15-minute service in conjunction with route 26 from the Intermodal depot to 7720 South and State Street.

Buses Used: 60-Foot Articulated Buses

Route will be part of the Bus Route Enhancement Program

Proposed Restructuring of UTA bus service-Route 26

This is my proposal to revamp Utah Transit Authority bus service.

Route 26:

From the Intermodal Depot via 600 West, 200 South, 300 West, North Temple, State Street, and Vine to the Murray Central TRAX station. Then via Vine Street, State Street, and 10000 South to the Sandy Civic Center TRAX station.

Route Frequency: 30-Minute Service 7 Days A Week. Will provide alternating 15-minute service in conjuction with route 27 from Downtown to 7720 South.

Buses: 60-Foot Articulated Buses

This route will be included in the route inhancement program. While this route has been largely ingnored by UTA because its close proximity to TRAX, it serves a completely different market and has its own needs. UTA basically cut the 22 back to 6200 South arbitarily when TRAX started becuase that is where the other routes broke off from State in the pre-TRAX days. However, the corridor is much more dynamic and this is designed to revitaliaze the corridor to the south of 5400 South.

Toll Roads Approved

Deseret News Article:

Lawmakers OK bill that could bring toll roads to Utah

Another Blogger's View On Boyer and TRAX

The Crow's Nest

Here is a great read on the Boyer Group's whining about TRAX stations in front of their complex.

Heck if they would have included the intermodal station into their complex they would not have had a problem because TRAX would not have to extended to far, but then again it is clear that the Boyers don't like transit.