Salt Lake Transit News Thread - Page 190

Future Mayor · #**3781** Posted **Dec 16, 2011, 5:46 AM**

Pipe dream, but it would be nice. Honestly the yellow ones heading out of Boise probably wouldn't even be close to reasonable or even the one from Seattle to Minneapolis. Seems like a long line for not much population.

redzeppelin · #**3782** Posted **Dec 16, 2011, 4:26 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Future Mayor

Pipe dream, but it would be nice. Honestly the yellow ones heading out of Boise probably wouldn't even be close to reasonable or even the one from Seattle to Minneapolis. Seems like a long line for not much population.

My opinion as a current Montana resident, and former resident of Idaho, Utah, and Minnesota, is that the Seattle-Minneapolis line could work if it approximately followed I-90 from Seattle to Billings via Spokane, Missoula, (Butte or Helena), and Bozeman. This is follows the original Northern Pacific Railroad route, and there is a surprising amount of commerce between Montana and Washington. A lot of the MT retailers are stocked out of distribution centers in WA, we are forced to watch the Mariners all summer on FSN, and the local population is often referred to Spokane for specialty medical care. The best routing across the Dakotas is debatable. A cutoff from Boise to Spokane might also make sense, and provide a roundabout link from Boise to N Idaho.

As for the yellow lines out of Boise, It would make more sense to have a single line following the Snake River to Idaho Falls (better connections are sorely needed between Boise and IF/Poky), where it meets a line coming north from SLC that continues up into Montana. I guess this really just approximates the existing Interstate highway layout.

i-215 · #**3783** Posted **Dec 16, 2011, 4:46 PM**

I listen to a lot of Los Angeles radio and I'm hearing that the San Francisco to Los Angeles high-speed rail line is D.O.A. It's way over budget and the voters are probably going to kill it next fall on the ballot, if the state doesn't end the project first.

As cool as it would've been, I say good riddance. The truth is HSR is a while elephant in a nation with a geography better suited to air travel and some of the most excellent highways around.

I've always feared that HSR would steer too much money away from maintaining the existing system we have and (worse), hijack money that's being well spent retrofitting metropolitan areas with LRT and commuter rail.

California's project ballooned to $160 billion. That translates, per capita, to $16 billion for a state the size of Utah. We don't have that kind of dough. But if we did, can you imagine how much transit we could build with that kind of money? We could run LRT down every street!

Old&New · #**3784** Posted **Dec 16, 2011, 4:58 PM**

China has a geographical region comparable to the United States, and they're putting in an Interstate-like High Speed Rail system...

redzeppelin · #**3785** Posted **Dec 16, 2011, 5:47 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Old&New

China has a geographical region comparable to the United States, and they're putting in an Interstate-like High Speed Rail system...

As i-215 pointed out, the USA has a fantastic highway system, which China does not have. If the choice is to invest in a brand-new highway system or a brand-new HSR system, then HSR is a good choice for China. There are parts of the USA, particularly in the Northeast, where HSR makes a lot of sense. But not everywhere. I don't know the details of China's plans, but I would bet that they are mostly using HSR to link their largest cities, most of which are concentrated near the coast. I would be VERY surprised if they were building a high-tech rail network that reached anywhere near their sparsely-populated western expanse. China's recent history has been all about investing in the major economic hubs at the expense of the rural population. They did recently open a new rail line into the high mountains of Tibet, but it only runs old, slow trains.

stayinginformed · #**3786** Posted **Dec 16, 2011, 11:23 PM**

Airport TRAX line is coming along nicely.

Reachforthesky · #**3787** Posted **Dec 16, 2011, 11:53 PM**

Nice!!

Do you have any more? Can you take anymore of North Temple?

i-215 · #**3788** Posted **Dec 17, 2011, 6:32 AM**

I will miss using North Temple as my 50 mile per hour viaduct into the city's north side.

But I genuinely believe the Airport line will be the greatest give to the city's west side in generations. I can't wait to take it for a ride next year!

RC14 · #**3789** Posted **Dec 17, 2011, 9:48 AM**

I was doing some house cleaning today and I found an old TRAX timetable from the Olympics. I forgot that I still had it. I noticed that TRAX ran till after 1:00am.

Also, why is UTA running these ugly UTDC vehicles again? I have seen a few of them running this week. Have they been running all along? This is the first I've seen them since the new lines opened in Augest.

SLCdude · #**3790** Posted **Dec 17, 2011, 10:40 AM**

Nice find. I was 9 when TRAX began operation, so I'm not very familiar with the initial phasing. I had no Idea the University line was completed before there the Delta Center stop was built.

P.S I'd really like to see more North temple shots!

Old&New · #**3791** Posted **Dec 17, 2011, 11:20 AM**

The "Delta Center" TRAX Station was built before the university line. However, during the Olympics, TRAX only served stations as far north as City Center as to not interfere with the temporary Olympic Medals Plaza.

scottharding · #**3792** Posted **Dec 17, 2011, 5:09 PM**

I noticed the very old trains out too. Hadn't seen them in a while. Maybe all the new trains need dents and blood taken care of...

skyguy414 · #**3793** Posted **Dec 17, 2011, 6:44 PM**

Some unfortunate news...Delta will likely not be operating the SLC-Tokyo route this year. It is not necessarily a reflection of the route itself. Delta has decreased and eliminated a lot of international routes this year due to the global economy.

The SLC-Tokyo route had been doing very well with strong load factors. In fact the route was scheduled to go from summer only to year-round service this winter. But the earthquake in Japan last spring coupled with the worsening global economy likely played factors. Also, the SLC to Tokyo had to be significantly weight restricted when departing from SLC on hot days, so it had to restrict the number of seats it could sell on the plane to much lower than what the capacity of the aircraft is. On the Tokyo to SLC leg however, the flights were typically oversold by 20-30 people every day and it always came in completely full.

If anything, this proved SLC is a viable destination for trans-oceanic service. SLC-Paris continues to perform admirably and operates year-round. I am willing to bet we will see SLC-Tokyo return as the industry and economy overall improve.

SLC Projects · #**3794** Posted **Dec 17, 2011, 8:25 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by scottharding

I noticed the very old trains out too. Hadn't seen them in a while. Maybe all the new trains need dents and blood taken care of...

Sad, but true. I was once told that the old trains are still needed for the original trax line, while the new trains were meant for the new lines. However ive seen the new trains downtown also.

SLC4L · #**3795** Posted **Dec 17, 2011, 10:40 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by scottharding

I noticed the very old trains out too. Hadn't seen them in a while. Maybe all the new trains need dents and blood taken care of...

Yeah, like warm air. Whenever I get on a new train it's not as cold as it is outside, but it's still not warm. My leg will be right up against the heater and I can't feel a thing coming out of them.

I don't like being cold.

RC14 · #**3796** Posted **Dec 17, 2011, 11:23 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by scottharding

I noticed the very old trains out too. Hadn't seen them in a while. Maybe all the new trains need dents and blood taken care of...

Sadly, I was seriously wondering if that was the reason.

John Martin · #**3797** Posted **Dec 18, 2011, 3:43 AM**

Are you referring to the old body style or the old old body style? The Sandy/Blue line always uses old trains except on weekends.

RC14 · #**3798** Posted **Dec 18, 2011, 11:14 AM**

Im taking about the old old body style, the UTDC trains UTA bought used. I know UTA has always used the siemens 100 and 150 trans on the blue line but I thought they retired the ancient ones.

stayinginformed · #**3799** Posted **Dec 18, 2011, 10:27 PM**

More North Temple TRAX Pictures

Looking east at 800 W

Looking west at 800 W--there will be a station here.

At 1000 W prepping the median.

State Fairground Station area.

A bit before Rocky Mountain Power, most of the cement and track has been laid.

Upgraded sidewalks.

Rocky Mountain Power Station

Deluxe brick sidewalk near Rocky Mountain Power

Redwood Road Intersection

They have put in these rounded walls on the corners of redwood and north temple.

At Redwood Rd looking west

Future station crosswalk with signals

The poles that will hold the electric lines have been put in from the airport to just past I-215.

wrendog · #**3800** Posted **Dec 18, 2011, 10:38 PM**

Great TRAX pics!

Too bad about the SLC-NRT cancellation... Hopefully it doesn't stay away forever..

I wonder what the next international destination will be for SLC? I'd like to see LHR or AMS and maybe a central/south american destination.