Admit TRAX is failure, then fix congestion
1. Five years ago, TRAX showed ridership of about 19,500 a day on the north/south or Sandy line. Today that line carries about 23,000 a day. That's not too bad, only a 15 percent increase in five years, barely keeping up with population growth. Nowhere close to the 300 percent increase that UTA claims. It is important to note that UTA compounds its ridership numbers. That means that if you ride from Sandy to the U. Med center and back, you are counted six times: two times on the north/south line, two times on the 400 South line, and two times on the U. Med line. That's how UTA comes up with the 43,000 a day number with only 15,000 TRAX customers. Isn't that creative? These lines take away directly from the bus passengers who used to use those routes, meaning that TRAX carries the same number of passengers that used to ride the bus. TRAX costs about four times as much as the bus, so even though UTA doubled our transit sales tax and carries the same 1 percent of Wasatch Front trips, UTA is still dead broke and asking for more. UTA only services about 30,000 customers a day systemwide, it just counts them every time they board a bus, train or TRAX times three.
3. TRAX has not attracted any commercial development. In fact, TRAX has been primarily responsible for the demise of our capital city's Main Street.
4. Some say that TRAX is sought by leaders of surrounding communities. Is that so? In South and West Jordan, where I live, less than one-half of 1 percent of trips are taken or will be taken by mass transit in any form. So what good will TRAX be on the mid-Jordan line? More than half of our city councils have asked for the study of the East-West Jordan Freeway, a reversible freeway on the same right of way connecting I-15 at 8000 South. This freeway would relieve congestion on 9000 South, 7800 South and 7200 South and cost less than half the $139 million for TRAX. It's a "no brainer," but somehow these requests just get lost in the mix and congestion increases. If we continue to spend 40 percent of our new transportation money on a system that almost no one will use, then we guarantee future congestion. I have no ax to grind with UTA. I just want something that works, and I want UTA to tell the truth.
5. Commuter rail will not decrease congestion. UTA claims that 4,000 a day will use the $400 million rail system. That is 2,000 in and 2,000 out; 1,000 of these already use the bus. The freeway carries 250,000 cars per day. Do you really think that we will notice 1,000 fewer cars? The same result would be realized with buses on an HOV lane at pennies on the dollar.
So to sum it up: TRAX is a proven failure. TRAX is dangerous; it will not attract development; commuter rail will not help; and community leaders want solutions that work, not sugar-coated propaganda. We should admit the TRAX failure and get on with the business of congestion relief.
Drew Chamberlain is the chairman for the Coalition for Accountable Government.
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