^^^
Engineering work for the Vineyard station is going on right now. The Station platform itself was designed a long time ago and the foundations are already there - but the
parking lot and access roads need to be designed.
As far as the removal of the freight spur, relocating is probably a better word. The north half of the freight line will remain as is, and local freight trains will continue to run up to American Fork every other day. What got approved is a realignment, so that from
600S in Orem (1600 N in Vineyard) the freight tracks will turn west and connect into the spur from the pipe manufacturing company. The tracks that parallel Geneva Road will be torn out, under the pretense that more businesses and housing will be built along the road if there are no train tracks and better access.
What is silly is that transit planners have proposed that TRAX will do the same thing - it will leave Geneva Road and all the businesses that will supposedly be built there, and instead run over to the Vineyard FrontRunner station for a transfer station. I love transfer stations, but the next station down the line Orem, will also be a transfer station between TRAX and FrontRunner. It is too much. I say just let TRAX run down Geneva Road even after the freight tracks are gone - it is only 1.5 miles. Then another 1.5 miles of separated ROW (former freight rail) to reach Orem.
I made a mistake in my last post. There is no intersection between Center Street and University Parkway. I meant University Avenue. That intersection should be the terminus for TRAX from Salt Lake City.