The streak continues

First train to Clearfield is due at 5:31. Actual arrival time: 5:37.

Thanks, UTA.

UPDATE: Got off the FR at North Temple and a 516 bus was still waiting. As I was walking up to board, the driver closed the door and began pulling away. A UTA employee basically threw herself in front of the bus to get the driver to stop so I could board, and had to tell him to wait until passengers had cleared the "ramp."

Of dead trains and crowded cars ...

Caught the 4:27 p.m. FrontRunner home today, and we had to wait on the Centerville siding for a southbound train. But it wasn't the usual reason -- instead, it was because the 3:57 northbound train had broken down in Farmington, and all those poor folks had to wait, I guess, 30 minutes on the platform for our train to arrive so they could continue their journey northward.

The good news: Our driver told us what was going on -- that the train ahead of us had broken down and we needed to make room for the other passengers. This is progress, in my book: actually telling us why things aren't happening they way they're supposed to.

Thanks, UTA. That's a good thing.

Behind the scenes regarding UTA-university negotiations

There's an interesting Deseret News story about how UTA and Beehive State colleges and universities arrive at prices for students' transit passes. In the past, evidently, UTA negotiated yearly prices/contracts individually with each school -- which sunds great for UTA, but lousy for the schools who don't have tough negotiators.

But the really interesting tidbit was reporter Geoff Fattah's report that UTA's ridership is 25 percent students. Wow, that's a lot.


The story is packed with lots of terrific numbers and information. Here's a sampling:

UTA to ditch Pleasant View FrontRunner connection?

The Standard-Examiner has a bit of bad news concerning FrontRunner service to the Top of Utah: "UTA may cut FrontRunner runs, increase bus service in Pleasant View."

The Pleasant View line always has been the bastard child of the FR line, as the story notes:

The station was supposed to open along with the rest of the line in April 2008, but UTA couldn't maintain right of way in the area and had to share the stretch of track with Union Pacific.

Improvements that needed to be made to the shared stretch of track were delayed when railroad workers were diverted to repair tracks damaged by a landslide in Oregon.

The Pleasant View leg of FrontRunner was finally completed Sept. 29, 2008, nearly six months after the rest of the line.

'Mommy bloggers' and families take first rides aboard new TRAX line

Salt Lake Tribune photo

A story at The Salt Lake Tribune details the demonstration ride aboard TRAX for an invited group: so-called "mommy bloggers."

Showing how important social media have become, the first public demonstration ride on the new Mid-Jordan TRAX line Friday went to families of "mommy bloggers," who write online about parenting and children’s activities.

"These are some of Utah’s top bloggers," said Tauni Everett, who handles social media for the Utah Transit Authority. "They are read all over the state — and the nation. We hope they will advertise train safety for kids and parents."

Everett said bloggers will help spread the word about the new Mid-Jordan and West Valley City TRAX lines that begin service on Aug. 7.

Tribune news story: 'UTA looks to future transit growth'

A story at The Salt Lake Tribune today notes the UTA board is peering into the future, as best it can, in an effort to guide its planning in the years ahead.

Allegra said if the UTA and developers encourage more “transit-oriented development,” or building residences where people can walk to bus and train stops, it could fuel much of that growth in transit use. Land use plans adopted by regional planning agencies are pushing that idea more as a way to handle housing and transportation needs amid future growth.

Perlich encouraged UTA to reach out more to young people and ethnic groups as it plans its future to ensure that it meets their needs. Allegra said UTA is in good position to help handle that with plans for expanded TRAX, commuter rail, new streetcars, bus-rapid transit, express buses and traditional bus service.

Today's Tribune editorial criticizes firing of state archaeologists

"Valuing History" is the headline on a Tribune house editorial today. The paper's editorial board comes out swinging against the state's "vindictive" action on behalf of development-loving politicos and private business interests. It's a worthwhile argument to be made, but does anyone believe it will get those jobs back? Didn't think so.

The positions of state archaeologist Kevin Jones and assistants Derinna Kopp and Ronald Rood were eliminated, not only to save money, but to settle scores. The three had become an annoyance to some of the powerful people in the Legislature, governor’s office and the Utah Transit Authority, and they had opposed powerful real estate developers.

It seems they became targets after they fought a proposed site of a new FrontRunner station in Draper when it was discovered also to be the location of an ancient American Indian village. It was a major archaeological find, the earliest known example of corn cultivation in the Great Basin. The three pushed to get the station relocated, raising the ire of Terry Diehl, who was a member of the UTA Board of Trustees and, at the same time, an owner of a real estate company that wanted to locate transit-related developments at the original site.

Powerful people tend to be vindictive. Now this trio of knowledgeable scientists is off the state payroll, and the state is the poorer for it.

Deseret News: 'Businesses still patient during TRAX construction'

Deseret News photo

The Deseret News has its own version of a story about the North Temple viaduct project that previously ran in the Tribune.

SALT LAKE CITY — Businesses along North Temple have been in "survival mode" for months — trying to hold out through the next 12 months of projected construction that will eventually produce a new light-rail line and revitalize the corridor between 300 West and Salt Lake City International Airport.

And by various accounts, many local business owners have struggled to stay afloat.

Tribune: 'TRAX moves to color coding'

The Salt Lake Tribune reports that UTA has begun color-coding its TRAX lines.

The Utah Transit Authority has decided what new “color name” to attach to each of its TRAX lines. Not surprisingly, the line that travels to the University of Utah will become the red line.

UTA refuses atheist organization's ads

The American Humanist Association posted notice on its website that UTA has refused to carry ads by the United Coalition of Reason.

The proposed advertisement, which was submitted to UTA, included the text: “Don’t believe in God? You are not alone.” UTA claimed that the advertisement did not meet its advertising policy. “Consistent with our policy,” UTA told UnitedCoR, “we don’t allow message ads from non-governmental organizations.”

Let's try this again

OK, I got sidetracked (pun!) a while back, but maybe this time I'll stick to it. Like I said: not so much to complain as to offer news and maybe a viewpoint now and then.

So, what got me blogging again? Two passenger cars on this morning's FR train to SLC. Most mornings, I take the 6:31 from Clearfield to Salt Lake Central. There are typically three Bombardier (the double-decker) cars in the morning. Today, only two. And one of the cars was a bicycle car, meaning one whole side of the downstairs compartment on my car was devoid of seats.

I stood to allow a couple of women to sit (I'm always surprised more men don't offer their seats). No big deal, but as I wrote in an email to UTA later in the day, it would have been nice to hear why we had only two cars. There was a train host aboard, but he made himself scarce. And the driver offered only that there had been a "malfunction" that left our train with only two cars.

I believe UTA could reduce most of the passenger frustration simply by offering as much information as possible. The host should have been telling everyone aboard exactly what went wrong. Lots of people around me were complaining; information would have silenced them and let us know what had happened.

This is quite common. When the trains sometimes start out of a station, then stop-start-stop-start even when no other train is approaching, we should know why. Most of us have schedules to keep, and it's a courtesy that's not too much to ask to be informed what's going on.

FrontRunner and Legacy, wrongly conjoined

As I was reading a Deseret News story, this sentence gave me pause: "In fact, FrontRunner was built as part of UDOT's compromise with environmentalists on Legacy Parkway, which has helped alleviate congestion on I-15 in Davis County."

I don't think that's correct. At all. Seems to me both Legacy and FR were being planned long before there was an environmental lawsuit that stopped construction on Legacy, and that FrontRunner was actually under construction by the time the state compromised with enviros in order to get Legacy back on track.

At any rate, Davis and Weber county residents voted to increase their own taxes in, I think, 2000, to fund transit upgrades including heavy commuter rail between Ogden and Salt Lake City. If my memory is accurate, Legacy construction wasn't halted by the lawsuit until about 2002, and the compromise (55-mph speed limit, blacktop instead of cement, etc.) wasn't reached until years later.

It may seem insignificant to some people, but I'd hate for the notion that FR was only the result of the Legacy lawsuit to somehow take hold in the public imagination going forward. A lot of people were planning, designing and lobbying for FR years and years before the Legacy squabble -- both environmentalists, transportation officials, politicians and newspaper editorial boards.

(Photo by the Deseret News)