Frontrunner opens, is on the right track, but is it still an 'also-ran'?

Frontrunner, UTA's new commuter rail line, is now open for regular passenger service between Salt Lake City and Ogden, with several intermediate stops.

It opened Saturday, April 26th, to huge celebrations as the first train with dignitaries and UTA officials, made the first trip down from Ogden, taking stops at each of the stations.

Trains leave every thirty minutes, and the trip takes an hour at present. Fares are actually a little high considering the train goes only around 40 miles at the most. However, given the rush hour problems and planned construction on I-15, including some work at present, this is still a good thing. When you see them you will see a slight variation on the 'striper' pattern painted on all newer UTA buses, you can think of them as the 'Sabertooth tigers' of the UTA fleet.

Now with all that said, and yes it is defiitely off to a great start. These trains will do much good,
is Frontrunner already an 'also-ran' in the commuter race? Could be, depending on when you need to use it.

The claim of speeds up to 80 mph were never met on the midday runs I took today. Part of that is because they did not 'double track' this line, and that means that much of the way, except for predetermined sidings and at the stations for it, they are running southbound and northbound trains on the exact same track. In fact, Wal-Mart trucks and other vehicles on I-15 even in construction zones on that freeway, were passing up the trains almost everywhere I could see the freeway from the trains.

Right now, the trains run every thirty minutes, and I think the single-tracking has alot to do with it. If they will just double track the entire Frontrunner line, and not make the same mistake when they build it south to Provo in a few years, they will be able to run trains much more frequently. If gas goes higher than it's expected to this summer, then they will be in high demand, and right now with the single track situation, they cannot add runs to the system to handle the expected major demands, they don't have enough buses or drivers as it is.

I think they could run trains every ten minutes with a double tracked line, and they could thus handle all those that wanted to use the trains. Until then, Frontrunner may be nothing more than an also-ran, no matter how good it is now.

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