Salt Lake Transit News Thread

[CountyLemonade]

The new 2X route isn't a BRT line; it's just a bus that has very limited stops from Central Station to the U that only runs in the morning.

As for those articulated buses, they were removed permanently. Not sure why, though it may have to do with the fact that they were New Flyers and the majority of the fleet are Gilligs (maintenance issues et al). It's a shame; I never got to ride in one of the articulated buses before they were given the axe.

[s.p.hansen]

Right now things are on track for Salt Lake City to begin a bike sharing program in the Spring of 2012. It will resemble Denver's B-cycle program.

As of now it looks like Rio Tinto is going to get Day Break integrated into the bike sharing program as well.

[SLCdude]

I like this! I think people who are willing to spend up to 45 minutes on a FrontRunner train every morning deserve the quickest route possible to the university.

I wonder if the 2X would replace the 2 bus or if they would coexist.

[CountyLemonade]

The 2X route will only run three or four times in the morning (leaving every half hour), and so the 2 with its fifteen-minute frequency will be left alone.

[(Eco)nomy_404]

Originally Posted by CountyLemonade

Just an observation I felt the need to share:

In a few weeks we're going down to see the lights. Much to my dismay, I discovered the last Blue Line train that travels all the way to Sandy leaves the Temple Square station at 10:59 pm on Saturdays. There is an 11:39 pm train but that only goes down to Central Pointe. It's not like we can't modify our schedule so we get back to the Trax station by 10:59, but then I think of the people in bars, or maybe at a late-running concert... Who ends their night at 11 pm? I mean, even for us we'd like to be in downtown for a good while into the night just walking around. Back in rosier times, as this schedule from 2006 indicates, the last train from downtown to Sandy left at 1:11 am. Isn't that wonderful?

I realize that many things have happened since then that have made service that late a luxury, but my philosophy is that as a public conveyance the UTA should still offer at least one train past that current 11 pm run that goes all the way to the end of the line. We talk here of making downtown a twenty-four hour kind of place; well, if our light rail service ends at 11 pm on Saturday nights, making that a reality is harder. The UTA will say that in their five years of offering late-night service not enough ridership was garnered. To heck with that. If anyone thought they could get trains to be packed at 1 am, well, what a fantastic thought. I can't see why adding one more trip past midnight would be such a big deal.

Just as a point of comparison, on Saturday nights the last train to leave from downtown to the EOL in other cities:

Salt Lake (Blue Line): 10:52 pm
Denver (E line): 1:42 am
San Jose (Convention Center to Santa Teresa): 1:48 am
Phoenix (Jefferson/3rd to Mesa): 2:26 am
Charlotte: 1:00 am
Portland (Blue Line, Pioneer Sq South to Gresham): 1:43 am

Well folks, there you have it.

I`d be happy if SLC just kept trains running until at least midnight. 10:52?? Really?

[scottharding]

I think it should be midnight on weekdays and 1 am on weekends. Maybe only Sunday on the current schedule.

[shakman]

I went back to page 185, I hope I went back far enough, to see if anyone had posted a couple of new air routes (SLC - CLT). Didn't read any such post... Forgive me if I did not go back far enough...

Both Delta and US Airways will commence non-stop service to Charlotte, NC. I read a couple of articles on airlineroute.net relative to the new service that indicated both airlines will utilize an A320 on this route.

Delta service will be daily commencing on March 3, 2012:
http://airlineroute.net/2011/11/17/dl-slcclt-mar12/

US Airways service will also be daily commencing on March 4, 2012:
http://airlineroute.net/2011/11/06/us-cltslc-mar12/

[SLCdude]

Tonight the City Council may be voting on whether or not to create an Interlocal Agreement among SLC, SSL, and UTA that would govern the responsibilities of each city as well as UTA for building the Sugarhouse Streetcar line. The staff recommends the council close the case and consider options, but I have my fingers crossed anyway! I'll probably attend the meeting tonight, seeing as they'll be voting on this as well as the Utah Performing Arts Center.

[Smuttynose1]

The third quarter transit ridership numbers are out from APTA. The quarter covers July through September, so the opening of the new West Jordan and West Valley City lines are only partially represented in the figures (because they opened Aug. 7, they were only operational for about 60 percent of the quarter).

But it looks pretty good. TRAX accommodated 55,500 riders every average weekday, the highest ridership in at least the last three years (and likely ever) and surpassed Saint Louis in ridership for the first time. That should make TRAX ninth in the nation for light rail ridership and the system should generally average well over 60,000 in ensuing quarters when the extensions are fully represented and as more come online.

[Smuttynose1]

FrontRunner also had a good quarter, enjoying its highest ridership since the quarter in which it opened (3rd Qtr., 2008).

[s.p.hansen]

Wow Smutty, these graphs are great! It seems totally possible that we may break the 60,000 passenger barrier by the next quarter. That would make me so happy.

[tygr]

Maybe I'm stating the obvious; and/or up in the night.

I'm guessing that our burst in numbers is a direct correlation to the new Trax lines in West Valley and Daybreak.

I feel that this shows that once public transit is realistic and convenient, that we aren't married to our vehicles as many suggest; if we are, it's more out of necessity than choice.

[CountyLemonade]

Hmm. Lame that 55,500 figure still doesn't reflect the full ridership numbers (since third quarter begins in July). Guess we'll have to wait longer for an accurate figure from oh-so-coveted APTA.

[redzeppelin]

Originally Posted by Smuttynose1

FrontRunner also had a good quarter, enjoying its highest ridership since the quarter in which it opened (3rd Qtr., 2008).

I'd be interested to see how the steady decline in commuter rail ridership from 2008 to 3Q 2010 compares to the employment rate.

Edit: I got my colors confused and was referring to the data for Seattle and Dallas, but I'm still curious if the ridership there reflected the employment rate.

[John Martin]

Originally Posted by CountyLemonade

The new 2X route isn't a BRT line; it's just a bus that has very limited stops from Central Station to the U that only runs in the morning.

As for those articulated buses, they were removed permanently. Not sure why, though it may have to do with the fact that they were New Flyers and the majority of the fleet are Gilligs (maintenance issues et al). It's a shame; I never got to ride in one of the articulated buses before they were given the axe.

So I've kind of been thinking about this. Now that UTA is operating Van Hools, maybe an articulated bus could return in the future. But I'm struggling to figure out why they have Van Hools in the first place.. was it just the body style that the found more appropriate for a BRT line?

[WASDEN]

This is good news. I think TRAX ridership numbers are going to explode once you can take it it the airport. I don't know about anyone else but I've been waiting for that leg well over 10 years- I was seriousy disappointed when the University spur was truncated and didn't include the airport in time for the Olympics. Once Frontrunner South is completed and plugs riders into the 53rd TRAX staion and downtown connectors I think ridership numbers will surge even more.

[chad.farnes]

I am really excited to the airport line too and think it is going to really boost the numbers even more. I have often wondered if frontrunner south is going to 🞵🞵🞵🞵 some of the riders from TRAX. Some individuals may start in South Jordan or Murray and take frontrunner rather than TRAX to downtown to make it a quicker trip. I think it could easily be argued that this wont happen (frontrunner doesn't run as often, is more expensive, drops you off at the transit center, which is not really close to most of downtown), but it might 🞵🞵🞵🞵 a few people away though.

I found an interesting article on the trib about the draper line (http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/53085480-90/3.8-allow-appears-draper.csp). They said that there is going to be a major announcement on Monday, which they speculated will be about UTA receiving the full funding from the federal government that UTA was trying to get for the Draper extension (the article said that they wanted the feds to cover 60%). However, the trib took the article down. All I could find was the title and the comments, but no actual body to the article. It is interesting because this is the second TRAX related article (essentially stating that something big was going to happen) that I have found that has been removed from the trib website within 24 hours.

[(Eco)nomy_404]

Originally Posted by Smuttynose1

The third quarter transit ridership numbers are out from APTA. The quarter covers July through September, so the opening of the new West Jordan and West Valley City lines are only partially represented in the figures (because they opened Aug. 7, they were only operational for about 60 percent of the quarter).

But it looks pretty good. TRAX accommodated 55,500 riders every average weekday, the highest ridership in at least the last three years (and likely ever) and surpassed Saint Louis in ridership for the first time. That should make TRAX ninth in the nation for light rail ridership and the system should generally average well over 60,000 in ensuing quarters when the extensions are fully represented and as more come online.

St. Louis down, Denver and Dallas to go! Considering the large jump we just had - plus the increased ridership not accounted for from the new school semester and people going down town to see the lights and go Christmas shopping - I think we may come fairly close to Denver. Then, when the airport line opens next year and the other expansions (Draper, Sugarhouse, and the Frontrunner South bringing in more riders from Utah county that will use Trax to get down town or to the airport) in the next few years, we will begin to compete with Dallas!

I think the most interesting statistic from the graph is how close we are to Denver, despite it having twice the urban population Salt Lake does. That means a much larger percentage of Utahns use light rail than those in Colorado. If just comparing brute ridership numbers brings us this close to Denver, imagine if this graph showed the percentage of residents who use light rail. We would probably waste Denver and maybe even Dallas (which has almost triple the urban population).

[SLCdude]

Between now and 2016, Denver plans on opening 119 miles of new track (LRT and Commuter) plus BRT. I think we can expect Denver to see higher ridership numbers than Dallas soon.

[Future Mayor]

I love the idea of high speed rail to Vegas, also from Salt Lake eventually they should have high speed rail to San Francisco, up through Bosie and into the Portland and Seattle. Also of course over to Denver.

I disagree with the idea of placing it at the airport. IMO High speed rail coming into downtown works like the airport hubs. It stops in Major cities, SLC, LV, SF, etc and then the other rail networks work like skywest, taking people to Ogden and Provo. I think another reason it should come downtown is because ideally that is where many of the people are headed anyway, and it doesn't take huge expanses of land like an airport. Bring it into the downtown core. Imagine the Gateway District around Central Station with Front Runner, Trax, and HSR all converging at that location.

I think I posted a proposed HSR map way back. I'll have to chek my Flickr and repost it.

As for Front Runner to other areas. The current UTA plan is that by 2025 FrontRunner will extend to Payson. While Nephi is in the long range vision phase, no planning, studies or right of ways have been done past Payson.

When FrontRunner South is completed to Provo, there will be an express bus that starts at the future Payson stop that will make a few stops along the way, in Spanish Fork and one maybe two others and will terminate at the Provo station. This is designed to estimate ridership and when the major cost of extension to Payson should occur. There is a crossover bridge needed just south of the Provo stop that is preventing the line extending to Payson, until ridership warrants the expense.

Tooele and Park City; I asked a UTA representative at a meeting we had with them while I still worked for Payson City and were discussing the above information about a possible extension east and west out of Salt Lake City. He response was that no serious thought has been put into a line out there, and PC would be simply to expensive.