There was a discussion on the last page about a hotel on the airport property, which got me thinking.
What if there was a complex of hotels built on the old golf course site? An automatic people mover could connect the hotels to the airport welcome center, in the same location where the TRAX elevated station was planned to go. Then, that APM would continue south and connect to my proposed commuter rail line between Tooele and Salt Lake City.
The hotel complex is the light blue area in this figure. I have placed an APM station on the east, and a TRAX infill station on the west. I imagine that the remaining parts of the golf course could be incorporated into the hotel complex, like a driving range, a single practice hole (or two), and maybe some jogging/running paths for hotel guests.
The Automatic People Mover would probably be a
Dopplemayr Cable Liner system, similar to systems used at the Oakland Airport and Las Vegas casinos. Dopplemayr has a local office in Salt Lake City, since they specialize in ski lifts. A Cable Liner is basically a cable-propelled train on an elevated track. Because the propulsion is handled by the cable, the trains, tracks, and electrical infrastructure can be significantly reduced in weight, saving in costs. The only downside is that the systems must be short, generally only a mile or 2. The route I show would be exactly 2 miles, which is on the longer end, but wouldn't set any records.
• Video Link
The connection to the commuter rail line would be transformative. Currently to get to the airport via transit, you have one option: TRAX. to get to TRAX via FrontRunner, you must transfer at North Temple Station and ride a train down a street for 20 minutes.
With this system, you could transfer from FrontRunner at the Rio Grande depot (please see the google map in my signature line) and get on a Tooele-bound commuter train. The first stop on the Tooele line will be the airport transfer station. I don't know if there will be any real time savings, since there would be an extra transfer onto the AMP, but this way you wouldn't need to get on a light rail train - the whole thing could be done via bigger commuter trains. This would also free up capacity on TRAX for more local traffic.
I think it's a pretty elegant solution for several problems, if I do say so myself! But what do you airport experts say?