Yes, this construction will remove one of the roadblocks that was preventing UTA from regularly running the Black Line.
The other constraint is the unavailability of TRAX cars. There just aren't enough to run 4-car trains on the Blue and Red Lines and have additional 2-car trains running the Green and Black Lines at the same time.
The last constraint is of course Money to operate the new service, which may or may not be as large an issue as it was before. That's more Makid's department.
As far as the switches go, it looks like the crossover switches just south of City Center station as well as the junction switches at 4th south are all getting replaced and upgraded. The crossover switches are referred to within UTA as the 'Olympic' switches because they were used during the full 2 weeks of the Olympics as the end-of-line switches (trains could not run past City Center station because of "security concerns"
).
These switches were completely manual - somebody had to go out there and open up a panel in the street and actually throw the switch by hand. This meant that they were basically never used again, since it was just too much bother.
The crossover switches on 7th South were operated similarly until just a few years ago (2017?) when UTA replaced/upgraded them. They can now be thrown remotely from UTA's central traffic control. This helps keep the system going even when one track is out-of-service due to construction or accidents or whatever.
The Junction at 4th south was also constructed with very little foresight, since the Olympics were coming in a few months (the line opened in 2001), and it was assumed that a TRAX extension down 4th South toward the airport would be coming soon afterwards, requiring the complete reconstruction of the 4th south junction. But we all know how that story went... FrontRunner came along and stopped at the new Intermodal Center (the Gateway Mall having used the UP depot, where FrontRunner had been expected to stop), and the Airport Line was eventually moved into the median of North Temple street instead of using the railroad ROW west of 6th West, as had been originally planned. Plans for the 4th South line were never realized, and the junction at 4th South & Main was never rebuilt to allow more fluid traffic flow through the junction.
As for the shortage of TRAX cars... the S-70's that were delivered to UTA are uniqe for two reasons. 1) They are shorter (lengthwise) than regular S-70's so that they can make the tighter turns of the old 'Classic' cars, and 2) they are designed to be able to couple with the old 'Classic' cars so that they can run in the same consist. I wonder if this is the reason UTA is refurbishing the old 'Classic' cars now - perhaps they are also upgrading the cars' software/operating system to work with the S-70's?
They say they will have 4 cars refurbished by the end of the year. I wonder if 4 new trains would be enough to run the Black Line?
First, you would have to take 4 cars from the regular Blue line peak hour trains (run 4 3-car trains instead of 4 4-car trains), then do the same thing for the Red Line, then combine to make 4 new trains of one 'classic' and one S-70 each. If that sacrifice is OK, then you've got 4 new trains.
The Green Line schedule shows it is 22 minutes from the Airport to Galivan Plaza. The Red Line schedule shows it is 17 minutes from Courthouse up to the University Medical Center. 39 Minutes total. Now double that because we need trains in both directions... 78 minutes, which is too much. If a train leaves every 15 minutes, UTA would need to run 6 trains (6 trains*15 minutes = 90 minute headways, compared to 4 trains*15 minutes = 60 minute headways).
I suppose UTA could stop running the extra Red Line trains between the University and Fashion Place West during peak hours, but I like those. Besides, I think 10 minute service on all rail lines ought to be a high priority at UTA.
What we need is more cars, in addition to the ones we have and are refurbishing. Until that happens I don't see the Black Line or any expansion of service happening any time soon.
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). For the last 18 years, the switches on both tracks, (northbound and southbound, or eastbound and westbound) were physically linked together, and were driven by the same switch motor. This meant that UTA had to time the trains going through that junction perfectly; trains going straight had to go through together, and trains making the curve had to show up at very close to the same time in order to avoid delays. If a southbound train was approaching from Galilivan Plaza and a northbound train was about to turn east onto 4th south, for example, one of the trains would have to stop and wait for the other, even though their paths never crossed.
I wish more developments could be so accommodating.
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