Light rail
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Dec 1, 2009 Posted by Judy Ferro
Excerpts from:
Commuter rail: Once a gamble, TRAX ingrained in Wasatch Front's future - The Salt Lake Tribune (Nov. 30, 2009) by María Villaseñor
Salt Lake City's TRAX is now 10 years old; numerous protests and fervent opposition to TRAX persisted right up to the Dec. 4, 1999, opening.
Original 17-mile route--In the decade since, that single north-south line has expanded to include lines to the University of Utah and a downtown inter-modal hub, which links TRAX to the commuter rail, FrontRunner.About 500,000 people rode TRAX each month when it first started; monthly ridership now exceeds a million.
Construction is under way to expand the network to 10 times its original reach.
UTA officials already have a broad vision for upcoming decades: 90 percent of the urban population within one mile of public transportation.
The TRAX ride takes about 30 minutes, which is a bit longer than driving
That "love affair" Americans have with their cars is often touted, but Inglish said it's an idea that's overblown. Who, he asked, can really be enamored with sitting in traffic and simmering with road rage?
Trains are convenient, frequent, reliable and speedy.
Though the up-front building costs are far greater with light rail than with buses, since the road is already in place, trains are "the more economically viable option" in the long run, about 30 years,
Once networks have been built, each train car can haul 200 people, and most TRAX trips include links of four cars.
Buses usually seat fewer than 75 people. Per trip, Inglish said, it costs $1.25 to move each person on light rail, compared to between $3 and $4 on a bus.
A couple of months after Salt Lake City was selected in 1995 to host the 2002 Winter Olympics, the Federal Transit Administration agreed to fund 80 percent of the capital costs on the $312 million project.
Voters approved a quarter-cent sales tax increase in 2000 and again in 2007 to accelerate TRAX construction.
The early skepticism about TRAX has evolved into conservative business groups and local governments clamoring to have rail running through their communities, he said.
There are TRAX extensions under construction that would run through Salt Lake City's west side, West Valley City, Midvale, West Jordan and South Jordan. One is being proposed into Draper.
Also, TRAX trains have linked up to commuter rail. FrontRunner trains travel north to Pleasant View in Weber County, and work has already started on a southern route that would transport people at freeway speeds to Provo.
The plan was to have UTA and cities partner with builders to create developments that mixed housing and businesses and supplied people with quick and close access to public transit.
The Gateway in Salt Lake City is an example of such a project, but most cities are still far from seeing those large-scale projects built.
UTA is legally mandated not to disproportionately affect low-income people through changes, Inglish said.