Severed cable causes delays on TRAX

As they waited for their trains Monday night, everybody at the 900 South TRAX station had a story to tell — and the time to tell it.

"I was headed to The Gateway to get some pants," said Seth Gregio, a Taylorsville High School student. "I ripped holes in all my pants from skateboarding and my mom gave me some money. Now ... I don't know."

After a cable was severed near the "spaghetti bowl" area where I-15 connects with I-80 early Monday, trains were running 25-35 minutes late all day, said Utah Transit Authority spokeswoman Carrie Bohnsack-Ware.

For a time Monday evening, Gregio was one of nearly 200 people crammed on the platform at 900 South and 200 West.

"It was packed to the gills," said Chelsey Richardson, a Spanish Fork woman who rides the train every day to work in Salt Lake City. When the rain started falling, and her feet got cold, Richardson called her father for a ride.

Officials did not know what severed the wire around 5 a.m., cutting power to the northbound lines.

"It took a lot to replace that humongous wire," Bohnsack-Ware said. "We were so focused today on trying to fix it. They have to do an investigation because it's not obvious right away."

With trains still able to run on the southbound lines, TRAX officials used a bridge to move trains in both directions from 900 South to 5400 South on the southbound tracks. The university line was unaffected, she said.

For University of Utah students, however, the trouble was just getting there. As a train approached, Greg Clark stuck his head inside the doors to ask which direction it was heading.

"I've been waiting for 40 minutes," he said after he was told they were going the other way. "I'm going to miss my class."

Passengers complained about a lack of warning from UTA officials and vague information from the transit hotline.

"They should have given us a warning," passenger Udayarka Karra said.

After a day at Alta Ski Resort, Jerry Wink waited for a train to take him back to his timeshare on South Temple.

"I got stuck on the train this morning," he said around 6 p.m. "I thought they would have it rectified by tonight. I should have rented a car."

Bohnsack-Ware said the wire was repaired before 7 p.m. and TRAX schedules should be back to normal for commuters today.

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