Salt Lake Transit News Thread

[TonyAnderson]

I'd prefer bright reds and neon greens so innocent bystandards can actually know they're on a track line before being ran over.

[s.p.hansen]

Originally Posted by (Eco)nomy_404

I was too lazy to rank the light-rail system ridership numbers but I am pleased to report that Salt Lake City narrowed its lag behind Denver to 7,700 less riders. Denver`s 2011 Q4 data was 66,800 compared to our 59,100. We have pulled even further ahead of St Louis, which clocked in at 52,300.

http://www.apta.com/resources/statis...rship-APTA.pdf

2011 Q4 APTA Ridership Numbers

Daily Ridership

Commuter Rail: 5,800

Light Rail:

1. Boston - 233,300
2. San Francisco - 162,400
3. Los Angeles – 154,500
4. Portland - 126,500
5. Philadelphia – 110,100
6. San Diego - 103,400
7. Dallas - 83,4007
8. Denver - 66,800
9. Salt Lake City - 59,100
10. St. Louis – 52,300

11. Sacramento - No Data (43,800 last 4th quarter)
12. Phoenix - 41,300
13. Houston – 36,100
14. San Jose - 32,900
15. Minneapolis - 30,300
16. Seattle - 27,800
17. Baltimore - 27,200
18. Buffalo - 24,500
19. Pittsburgh - 24,200
20. New Orleans - 19,700

http://www.apta.com/resources/statis...rship-APTA.pdf

[(Eco)nomy_404]

Bill targets risky behavior at railroad crossings

Lawmakers sounded warnings and tried to lower the gate Monday on a rash of railroad-crossing accidents over the past year.

The Utah Senate moved to more clearly outlaw dangerous activities around crossings, which the Utah Transit Authority says led to at least 25 serious incidents last year at TRAX and FrontRunner commuter rail crossings.

"It’s against the law to go around the gates. It’s against the law to go through the red lights," said SB195 sponsor Sen. Karen Mayne, D-West Valley City. The Senate passed it 24-5 and sent it to the House.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politic...sings.html.csp

Do we have to spell it out for you idiots? Go ahead and be idiotic elsewhere. It is, however, illegal to behave idiotically around trains. Look both ways, don`t run flashing red lights and/or guard rails, check your blind spot before merging into a shared rail lane or turning left, don`t try to play frogger with the trains. Just use your common sense and don`t be stupid! Its a lot simpler than it sounds, I promise.

[chad.farnes]

Originally Posted by CountyLemonade

The red, blue, and green are just an awful combination of colors, in my opinion. It looks very inconsistent, and—as others have said—the red just does not fit in at all. Maybe the improvements to North Temple itself will tie this all together a little better.

I didn't like the colored poles when I first saw them in the photos, but today I actually drove down North Temple and decided that I really like them. I will take time to finally decide how they look and interact with the street, but I like the direction that they are taking. North Temple is not main street (which looks very classy), and I think it would be wrong to try and impersonate Main street. I say give North Temple its own vibe and I think that colored poles does a great job of doing that. Plus I feel like it fits more in with the neighborhood as well. The west side is home to lots of Hispanics and other non-Caucasian populations, who generally paint stuff much brighter (and let me say I LOVE that they do that). I think that it fits in well with the neighborhood than trying to be something that it is not (plus if the photos that I saw were correct and there are bright colored shrubs instead of cement on the West side of the 215, it is simply another way to add color and tie the whole line together. I really like it)

That being said, I don't really like the lighter colored poles. At each station, there were dark colors (such as darker blue and darker yellow) and then a lighter, almost pastel color. The lighter colors look as if the poles have been standing in the sun for years and have started to fade. Once again, it may look good when finished, but I will all of the colors were the dark ones rather than the light ones

[CountyLemonade]

Originally Posted by s.p.hansen

2011 Q4 APTA Ridership Numbers

Daily Ridership

Commuter Rail: 5,800

Light Rail:

1. Boston - 233,300
2. San Francisco - 162,400
3. Los Angeles – 154,500
4. Portland - 126,500
5. Philadelphia – 110,100
6. San Diego - 103,400
7. Dallas - 83,4007
8. Denver - 66,800
9. Salt Lake City - 59,100
10. St. Louis – 52,300

11. Sacramento - 43,800
12. Phoenix - 41,300
13. Houston – 36,100
14. San Jose - 32,900
15. Minneapolis - 30,300
16. Seattle - 27,800
17. Baltimore - 27,200
18. Buffalo - 24,500
19. Pittsburgh - 24,200
20. New Orleans - 19,700

http://www.apta.com/resources/statis...rship-APTA.pdf

Glad to see that ridership has exceeded the UTA's estimates for the end of 2011 (they guessed it would be up to 58,000 at this time). It's my hope that in fifty years that figure will be somewhere around 100,000 or 150,000. We'll see how our posterity embraces transit.

I don't know how reliable or accurate these APTA estimates are, but it's interesting to note the decreases in ridership in cities like San Francisco (a decrease of 8,000), Los Angeles (lost 15,000), Portland (8,000), and—most dramatically—San Diego, which lost 30,000 riders per day. What gives?

In case anyone's wondering, I got the 2011 Q3 figures from this page, which has not yet been updated.

[s.p.hansen]

Originally Posted by CountyLemonade

Glad to see that ridership has exceeded the UTA's estimates for the end of 2011 (they guessed it would be up to 58,000 at this time). It's my hope that in fifty years that figure will be somewhere around 100,000 or 150,000. We'll see how our posterity embraces transit.

I don't know how reliable or accurate these APTA estimates are, but it's interesting to note the decreases in ridership in cities like San Francisco (a decrease of 8,000), Los Angeles (lost 15,000), Portland (8,000), and—most dramatically—San Diego, which lost 30,000 riders per day. What gives?

In case anyone's wondering, I got the 2011 Q3 figures from this page, which has not yet been updated.

The info on the wiki page must be a bit shaky. Here is a list for the 4th quarter in 2010:

Quarter 4, 2010:

Data here:
http://www.apta.com/resources/statis...rship_APTA.pdf

Bus:
86,300

Commuter Rail:
FrontRunner: 5,400

Light Rail
City - Weekday ridership

1. Boston - 218,200
2. San Francisco - 153,300
3. Los Angeles – 145,400
4. Portland - 123,100
5. Philadelphia – 113,800
6. San Diego - 90,000
7. Denver - 65,900
8. Dallas - 65,100
(St. Louis – not in the report)
9. Salt Lake City - 47,300
10. Sacramento - 43,800


11. Phoenix - 40,300
12. Baltimore - 36,300
13. Houston - 34,600
14. San Jose - 31,100
15. Minneapolis - 30,100
16. Seattle - 24,700
17. Pittsburgh - 24,600
18. Buffalo - 21,000
19. New Orleans - 17,200
20. Charlotte - 14,100

[John Martin]

Originally Posted by s.p.hansen

The blue with the dark green is very odd. In my heart of heart I'm hoping that they didn't like the dark green and are testing the blue to see if it looks better. The blue does look better with the red and it would be great it they could just repaint all the light rail poles and street lights light blue.

I think you may have missed the article posted a little while ago. The colors represent stops/stations. Each platform will have a different color.

[s.p.hansen]

Originally Posted by John Martin

I think you may have missed the article posted a little while ago. The colors represent stops/stations. Each platform will have a different color.

I indeed missed that. I'll try to reserve judgement until when it's all done. Luckily poles are repaintable .

[ajiuO]

I usually just take trax within the free fair zone. Yesterday I decided to take trax to Jordan commons to see a movie that I didn't want to wait until 9 to see at gateway.. So walked over to main street in front of CCC to get on.

I must say. I was very disappointed in the station. The first ticket machine was off, the second one had an out of order sign on it. When I finally found one that worked the whole middle of the screen was broken so that it was hard to see what I was doing. I also realized at this point that the machine did not take debit cards. When I ride public transit in other city's like San fansisco they all seem to take debit. I did notice that the machine at Jordan commons looked a bit nicer and had a card slot.


They should really fix this... And fast. CCC shopper probably won't love the disfunctionality of the ticket machines there.

[Old&New]

Please send a letter to UTA

[billbillbillbill]

http://www.rideuta.com/mc/?page=TRAX...arkingandStops

UTA lists the trax stops that do and do not take cards. Thankfully, the # that do not is shrinking. Of course City Center is one without the card machines.

What I would love is a rechargeable tap on card so I could put $20 on it and then if I wake up one morning and want to commute, I can just tap and it would deduct rather than having to scrounge for cash. I guess I can also wait until my bank adopts the electronic cards.

[stayinginformed]

I recently received a new American Express card with an RFID chip in it so that it works on the tap on tap off kiosks, and automatically charges your card for the fare. Unfortunately, it charged my card when I was trying to tap on and tap off with my University staff card, so I asked American Express for a new card without the chip in it. I think they will eventually move to the tap on credit card transactions.

[ajiuO]

Wow it looks like there are only like 3 stations that don't take cards. They should just update them... Specily CCC with the grand opening coming and the fact that the current machines are garbage

[Future Mayor]

I wouldn't be surprised if those machines will be changed to the newer ones in the next ten days. UTA is obviously converting all the stations, maybe the City Center stop is further down the list, but yes hopefully in the next 10 days.

[ajiuO]

I also think the stop should be renamed to city creek center...

[Future Mayor]

Ever since the first two lines they have tried to steer clear of naming stations after specific building names, but sometimes it's hard not to. ie, when the arena changed names they simply changed the stop to Arena. I actually like City Center as the station name, because that stop is more than simply CCC.

[ajiuO]

Originally Posted by Future Mayor

Ever since the first two lines they have tried to steer clear of naming stations after specific building names, but sometimes it's hard not to. ie, when the arena changed names they simply changed the stop to Arena. I actually like City Center as the station name, because that stop is more than simply CCC.

Yeah but the stop is literally right in the middle of city creek center... Fashion place has a station named after it and it's not even that close to the stop.

Arena is a better name anyway

[Future Mayor]

Originally Posted by ajiuO

Yeah but the stop is literally right in the middle of city creek center... Fashion place has a station named after it and it's not even that close to the stop.

Arena is a better name anyway

Like I said, they tried after the first two lines. I think it will be pretty obvious to riders that they are at City Creek Center.

[Old&New]

Originally Posted by ajiuO

I also think the stop should be renamed to city creek center...

Maybe City Creek Center should change it's name to City Center.

[Future Mayor]

Originally Posted by Old&New

Maybe City Creek Center should change it's name to City Center.

Another Mega Development already has that name.