WOODS CROSS — Imagine flipping open a laptop on a table, plugging it into a power outlet, logging onto the Internet with free Wi-Fi and reading newspaper coverage about last night's Jazz game, downloading YouTube videos or putting the final touches on a presentation for work — all while gliding smoothly at 79 mph up Interstate 15 from Provo to Salt Lake City.

Or from Orem to Lehi. Or Vineyard to American Fork and on up to Ogden and Pleasant View in Weber County.

Imagination won't be needed much longer. Work on FrontRunner commuter rail from Salt Lake City to Provo could begin as soon as next month and be complete as early as 2011. That news and a ride on FrontRunner during a trial run between Woods Cross and Kaysville left Utah Valley leaders with big smiles Friday.

"I'm really impressed," Orem Mayor Jerry Washburn said. "It's really a smooth ride. I'm excited. I think it'll be a great alternative to the car. ... I'm not sure our residents realize how soon this is coming."

They'll be getting what most said they wanted. Sixty-nine percent of Utah Valley voters approved boosting the county's sales tax by a quarter-cent in November 2006. The money is primarily earmarked to pay for FrontRunner commuter rail.

To Washburn and Utah County Commissioner Larry Ellertson, timing is crucial. A massive $3.5 billion expansion of I-15 that will clog the freeway through Utah Valley could start by 2011 or 2012.

"We have to have FrontRunner before I-15 reconstruction begins," Washburn said.

Commuter rail opponents say many people won't use it because a total trip, including time to and from the rail stations, can take longer than a car trip, but Friday's ride appeared to make cases for both sides. From the park-and-ride lot in Woods Cross, the FrontRunner trial run sped along faster than every vehicle moving parallel to it on northbound I-15, but not by much, and stops at stations negate the higher speeds.

On the return trip, FrontRunner flew past traffic paralyzed by construction on southbound I-15.

Commuter rail from Salt Lake City north to Pleasant View, called FrontRunner North, is scheduled to open in the next few months.

Utility and drainage crews could begin work on the spur to Provo, dubbed FrontRunner South, after the first of the year, said Steve Meyer, commuter rail project manager for the Utah Transit Authority. Real construction is expected later in 2008.

FrontRunner South will cover 45 miles from Salt Lake City to Provo. The seven stops between those two stations are Orem, Vineyard, American Fork, Lehi, Draper/Bluffdale, Sandy/South Jordan and Murray.

The tracks use a continuous weld that eliminates the clickity-clack of railroad trains.