This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2008, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Updated: 3:53 PM- When a TRAX power cable snapped near the Interstate 80 overpass, last month, Utah Transit Authority officials were caught unprepared -- and embarrassed by the chaos that ensued.
When a similar problem occurred Monday, UTA spokeswoman Carrie Bohnsack-Ware said it appeared as though her agency had learned its lesson.
"We have people on the phones. We've got a big network of communication in place. So everything is much more smooth than it was two weeks ago," she said. "We've got people on every platform telling people what is going on. Everyone is in the know. . . and we're getting people where they need to go."
Power was restored to the north-bound cables and TRAX trains were running again by mid-afternoon.
But that kind of efficiency stood in stark contrast the the scene at TRAX stations on the North-South line on Feb. 26, when an early morning line break resulted in a day of delays -- made worse when UTA, which expected to get the line back up and running by the evening commute, failed to rally enough busses to form a "bus bridge" to ferry commuters past the broken segment of the line.
This time around, UTA declined to predict a quick fix and opted to have the busses ready to go for the evening commute in case the cables were not repaired. But that turned out to be unnecessary. With the north-bound cables fixed, TRAX trains were running a full schedule by 3:30 p.m. -- meaning trains were running at their regular 15-minute intervals.
That still leaves the question of what caused the power line to break -- just about 100 yards from where it snapped the first time.
Bohnsack-Ware said UTA's working theory is that the nine-year-old cables, which run closely underneath the overpass, may have suffered from greater wear and tear at that location as a result of rubbing against the underside of the bridge.
"That's what we think at this time, but it's going to take a little bit of time to find out," she said.
mlaplante@sltrib.com" Target="_BLANK">mlaplante@sltrib.com