Utah Returns To Its Rail Roots
ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO, fast-grow- ing northern Utah was planning and build- ing out three connecting interurban lines on 198 miles of trackage. The visionaries mak- ing it all happen in that era were Simon Bamberger (who would go on to be a popular World War I-era Utah governor) and the family of Marriner S. Eccles (who would lat- er become an iconic Federal Reserve Chair- man in the FDR era). The state was well-served by these elec-
tric rail operations (which competed with some older Union Pacific seam-hauled branch lines for both passenger and freight traffic) until the post World War II invasion by the Interstates. Thus in the late 1990s, Utah’s by then au- to-centric culture prompted doubts that a new light rail system then under disruptive construction on the streets of downtown Salt Lake City would attract sufficient ridership. But that was prior to the 1999 opening of the Utah Transit Authority’s (UTA) first light rail TRAX route from Salt Lake City ulti- mately to the suburb of Sandy. Last August, two new routes were inau-
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gurated to West Valley City and Mid-Jordan (Daybreak) respectively. Many earlier de- tractors now acknowledge the city’s econom- ic revival was generated largely by the Siemens-built light-rail trains that feed commuters to jobs, customers to merchants, renters to office space, visitors to and from their hotels, and residents to new condo- minium complexes. UTA’s TRAX light-rail currently serves
Utah’s largest city (Salt Lake), the second largest (West Valley) and fourth largest (South Jordan), all within the Salt Lake Metropolitan area on 38 miles of trackage, (operating 49¹⁄₂ miles considering portions of the tracks shared by different routes). Meanwhile, a totally separate fleet of
UTA trains is expanding the company’s reach to other major Utah cities, a full- fledged commuter service on Class I track- age purchased from Union Pacific in a deal by which UP still uses the property (mostly on separate tracks) for freight. That would be UTA’s FrontRunner commuter, currently operating a 38-mile stretch from Salt Lake City north to Ogden, reviving credible pas- senger rail for cities and towns previously served by Simon Bamberger’s early 20th century Bamberger Railroad, only this time with 21st century Bombardier-built double- decker coaches. Come December of this year, the FrontRunner will also operate for 45 miles south out of Salt Lake City calling at such locations as Orem (the state’s fifth largest city) and terminating in Provo (third). John Inglish, the just-retired CEO/Gener-
al Manager for the Utah Transit Authority (UTA) leaves a legacy of a rapidly growing rail passenger system, landing Utah at or near the top of the national list in terms of passenger rail revival in this young century. On his way out the door, Inglish can take pride in major UTA projects that have come in on time and under budget. The two latest TRAX lines (opened in 2011) not only made it to their inauguration day at about 20 per cent under projected costs, according to UTA officials, but also were completed a year ahead of schedule. That has helped boost the TRAX weekday ridership growth from 42,766 in March 2011 to 59,163 in March 2012. Finishing ahead of time will also apply to the forthcoming Provo leg of the Front Runner whose December 2012 opening beats its previously expected 2014 inaugural.
Class One and Transit: It’s A Deal UTA and Union Pacific (UP) have forged an amicable partnership. Working through two
8 JULY 2012 •
RAILFAN.COM
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