This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2008, and information in the article may be outdated.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.
For 15 years I have made the commute from Roy to North Salt Lake, and I have waited with great anticipation for the new FrontRunner commuter train to come into service.
I just worked the numbers to see if FrontRunner would save me money: I commute 1,080 miles a month. This morning I purchased gas at Costco for $3.07 a gallon. My car averages 20 miles per gallon. That comes to $165.78 a month for gas. A monthly FrontRunner pass is $145. That's a difference of $20.78.
The distance from the Woods Cross stop to my work is 2.1 miles, one way. That's 84 miles of walking a month (no bus service from the stop). On top of that, most of the walk has no sidewalk, and a good bit of it is just dirt. I figure gas will have to be about $6 a gallon before I start riding the train.
But maybe someday I'll ride Front- Runner to downtown to walk over the sky bridge.
Cole Carothers
Roy