It has been just a decade since rail commuting returned to Utah, but the vision for a seamless web of trains across the Wasatch Front is emerging.
To get there will require a full circle back to a mid-20th-century scene, with streetcars running in traffic. Those electrified lines will connect the region's denser neighborhoods and commercial districts with the faster trains now running on light-rail lines, according to the Utah Transit Authority's plans. TRAX in turn links to intercity diesel trains on the FrontRunner route -- currently from Ogden to Salt Lake City and, soon, south to Provo.
Within two to three decades, 90 percent of Wasatch Front homes should be within a mile of a major rail or express bus stop, said Mike Allegra, UTA's assistant general manager.
He describes the end result the same way one would Utah's network of roads and highways. The streetcars will act like neighborhood collector roads that move traffic to TRAX or rapid buses, which run in their own lanes, whisking people the way a major highway does. From there, passengers can transfer to FrontRunner, the rail system's limited-access freeway.
"Each mode feeds the other," Allegra said.
UTA General Manager John Inglish likens the TRAX system to a major city's subway -- but one that's above ground and therefore cheaper.
Eventually, the motion will get even faster, Allegra said, because he foresees, "in our lifetime," electrifying the FrontRunner trains so that they run 110 mph. Currently they top out at 79 mph.
So what is a streetcar, and how is it different from TRAX?
It's an electric rail car that can run through a lane of traffic. In many ways it's similar to TRAX, Allegra said, but it's lighter, so laying the tracks doesn't require such fortification. The result is a lower price tag, partly because underground utilities aren't affected.
A streetcar is low to the ground and requires no station platform, though Allegra said it will be important to protect passengers as they board and disembark. Some city streetcars, such as those in Portland, Ore., drop passengers straight onto a curbed sidewalk.
When will UTA buses spew less nitrogen-oxide pollution than the cars they displace?
Much of the fleet was purchased during times of more lenient federal pollution standards, but those buses are fast cycling out of use. Standards for new buses tightened in 1997 and will again next year, when many will be hybrid electrics. UTA says its fleet will pollute less than the cars it takes off the road by 2011 or 2012. The existing buses already lighten Utah's carbon footprint.
As a young boy in suburban Texas, Salt Lake City Councilman Soren Simonsen found his freedom when he hopped on his bike. That's the sort of freedom he's trying to instill in his daughter and son when you see them on the No. 21 bus or walking around Sugar House. It's also what he hopes to achieve by requesting 75 percent of this year's transportation budget go to transit, pedestrian and bike improvements.
The Wasatch Front Regional Council Web site features current projects as well as planned transit developments.
Find a bus or train route and frequency on the Utah Transit Authority Web site.
