Reader comments
Easing congestion: FrontRunner South progresses as crews unveil rail addition
29 comments | Read story
I am glad that the Mass transit is coming back.
It is to bad we are bailing out GM.
In 1870, using materials left over from the Union Pacific, volunteer labor, and primitive equipment, Brigham Young constructed the Utah Central Railroad from Ogden to Salt Lake City in less than a year. That's 38 miles of track, or about the same distance from Salt Lake to American Fork.
One would think that with modern equipment and techniques they could get it done in less than 6 years. Heck, the reconstruction of I-15 took less than 5 years, and that was a much bigger project.
Salt Lake used to have a fantastic rail system and now we are having to rebuild it. I don't hear GM offering to help defray he costs.
Public transit is the future of transportation. It's a good thing that UTA's leadership isn't as myoptic as many of the posters here.
UTA's agreement with UP in 1993 to purchase the right of way was a heck of a deal for the state and well timed in future planning.
It's merely a useless, but extremely expensive sop to the tree huggers and Utah Envisioners.
If someone really wanted to clear up congestion, they could run a bypass around Lehi so Saratoga, Eagle Mountain, and Tooele County residents don't have a 20-minute slog through the ugliest downtown in Utah County.
The railroad built in 1870 is a poor comparison to the FrontRunner. Land acquisition alone is astronomical now compared to back then. Demolition, relocation expenses, and so on and so forth. No comparison. I have used mass transit in SLC, Los Angeles and Denver and it was less expensive than driving and not a significantly larger investment in time for my daily commute. We didn't own a 2nd car until we moved to where mass transit wasn't available. I would still be using mass transit if it were available where I live now.
FR South will have as much impact on congestion as the $50K that UTA just spent on Segway scooters! Whoever wrote the headline for this article must be getting paid by UTA.
The up-front cost of buying it, insurance, registration, oil changes, tires, and maintenence. Then add to that the stress of driving it in bad traffic, risk of accidents, and those days where it takes 2-3 hours to get to work because of multiple car wrecks durring a morning commute blizzard.
Instead, you can be sleeping, relaxing, or working online in comfort during that commute while saving money and helping the environment.
Of course a personal cost-benefit analysis is in order, but don't forget ALL of the costs, including those that aren't monetary. The front runner along with trax is a great tool for our local community and economy.
A few months later, however, the Legacy Parkway opened. It is just a tiny little road with two lanes each direction and a low speed limit of 55 mph. But NOBODY could deny the massive effect its opening had on congestion. Suddenly the commute between SL and Davis counties was again tolerable.
Trains are not the solution.
Properly designed and sited roads are the solution.
Mass transit is 18 and early 19th century.
Personal transit in the current and future.
While on the train, I can work, via the free wi-fi and electrical power that UTA provides for my laptop. I can't do that in a car.
The other problem is that the front runner station is too far from a lot of things. You have to switch to trax or a bus and then it ends up taking 1.5 hours to get to work door-to-door. Busses are much more efficient and flexible if you ask me.
With fewer than 400,000 people living in Utah and Davis, Weber Counties, it doesn't seem to make very much sense.
Why didn't they think of running trains underground in downtown Salt Lake like what they have done in other major cities?
Now who wants to have to transfer to TRAX or bus to get to where they need to go?
Results?
(1) It saved money over the long run, especially in sparing my car wear and tear.
(2) It saved time: not that I got to work faster, but that I could work or read in comfort on the train. That time would have been wasted in the car. (This was by far the biggest advantage: I looked forward to my time in the train every day.)
(3) It saved us from having to buy a second car.
(4) It meant I did not have to worry about missing work if the car broke down.
(5) During blizards and rainstorms, I rode safely and flew by the traffic jams.
I'm a strong fiscal conservative. Mass transit is one of the few really worthy uses of tax money. Everyone knows they do not turn a profit: neither do roads, garbage collection, or public schools, but all of those are worth subsidizing because of their benefit to the community. There are many other government programs which demonstrably fail--its those programs that should be cut, not mass transit.
Add your comment
Comments are monitored. Any comments found to be abusive, offensive, off-topic, misrepresentative, more than 200 words or containing URLs will not be posted.
E-mail address: For internal use only. We may want to contact you to publish your comment (not your e-mail address) in the newspaper or for a separate story idea.
- Aggies beat Spartans in snowy Logan 4:31 a.m.
- TCU 55, Utah 28 4:24 a.m.
- BYU 24, New Mexico 19 4:21 a.m.
- Jazz game at a glance 3:00 a.m.
- Real Salt Lake: Game at a glance 3:00 a.m.
- Stanford ends Y's soccer season 2:20 a.m.
- Jazz hope D-Will returns soon 2:19 a.m.
- Snow, SUU lose 2:18 a.m.
- Toone saves day for Wildcats 2:15 a.m.
- Win in New Mexico good for Y? 2:15 a.m.
- Apostle's wife felt comfort in attack
- Can BYU root for (ick) Utah Utes?
- Short-handed Jazz fly past Sixers
- D-Will home for daughter
- Utes excited for 'dream' game
- Bench proves fruitful for Y.
- Crash on snowy road kills woman
- BYU happy to escape with victory
- GameDay in Fort Worth
- Born of water and the spirit
- SLC council OKs gay rights policies
358 - Editorial: Mormons and gay rights
200 - BYU happy to escape with victory
194 - Will state consider gay rights law?
148 - TCU creams U.
134 - Can BYU root for (ick) Utah Utes?
130 - Letters: Strange breed in Utah
129 - Utes remain silent about BCS
120 - Pratt pleads not guilty to sex charges
106 - Celtics crush Jazz
104
If you are looking for a bird on the cheap, the following specials from...
How do you handle kids and contests? Our oldest daughter, 7, is of the...
So Great!!! So Proud - Love RSL - Bring Home The CUP!!!!!
mr cannon's bold assertation that the purpose of the first ammendemnt as...
Great great great game!!!! Nicky Rimando is a god! We're the most complete...
I had the game on DVR and just watched it. That was the most exciting game...
financially cannot this year, but I will watch loyally, how great to hear...
This is hardly surprising. Bennett has a remarkable arrogance which is also...
I guess that is why "they play the game" as Herman Edwards would say.. ...
What was the score of the LSU vs LA tech game? Alot closer than you'd like to...
Has Fedor not said that THIS IS OUR YEAR all year long? Go back and...
This is just a small glimpse of the future with Obamacare: corruption, waste...

