Plans are chugging along for rail line

LAYTON — They've been waiting for the train for more than a decade, when talk of commuter rail along the Wasatch Front first turned serious.

They still can't see it coming around the bend. But there are irrefutable signs that the little engine can and, in fact, will, make its debut in Utah in the near future — likely sometime in 2007, with construction beginning early next year.

And according to recent opinion polls, a majority of Davis County commuters are eagerly awaiting its arrival. Because even if they don't plan to use it, they hope others will — and that should relieve congestion in the narrow Davis County corridor, where I-15 is currently the only efficient roadway available to commuters.

"I think they are ready, more than ever before, and then there's a segment of the population that wishes it had been built already," Davis County Commissioner Dan McConkie said of residents' anticipation of commuter rail. "And every time we have some sort of incident when that road (I-15) becomes impassable . . . we get a lot more calls — about Legacy (Parkway), about commuter rail."

"With the nature of our region here, it's going to be a major part of our transit system and connect pretty much the whole region in the long run, once we get it down to Provo and Payson and so forth," said Wasatch Front Regional Council transportation planner Doug Hattery.

In Layton, about halfway between Ogden and Salt Lake City, commuters have expressed particular interest in the Utah Transit Authority's planned 44-mile commuter rail system.

"We're excited about having it in our community," Layton Mayor Jerry Stevenson said. "If you go back to the last (opinion poll) . . . I believe Layton demonstrated a higher percentage of acceptance of commuter rail than anyplace up and down the Wasatch Front."

And it's not just commuters who welcome its arrival. The city hopes that by hosting one of the eight commuter rail stations, it can benefit from new economic development. Already, Layton has created a redevelopment agency surrounding the station location, which is in the old downtown section of Layton.

"We're not RDA-crazy like a lot of places, but we think, as a community, it gives us an opportunity to assist . . . infrastructure development," Stevenson said. "Most of the infrastructure in the area is quite old and needs to be upgraded.

"We have a new Home Depot going up in that area presently and that Home Depot, I think, will kind of provide an anchor."