Salt Lake City, Utah: Frontrunner

And I'll be onboard taking some pics.

There's a good chance my wife and I will visit the SLC area some time around June 1. We'll be driving home to South Carolina from Arizona by way of Colorado, and I'm going to push to extend that loop a bit to include Utah.

Where can we find motels that aren't too far from a Frontrunner station? It doesn't have to be walkably close, although that would be nice. I'd just like to combine getting in and out of SLC with my Frontrunner sightseeing and picture-taking. Or we could do it with TRAX if there's a convenient option, but then I'd have to work in an out-and-back ride on Frontrunner. We'd probably ride TRAX out to the University area anyway.

We're mainly interested in the budget chains: Motel 6, Red Roof, etc., but we'd consider upgrading to a midlevel chain if it's more conveniently located.

I'll get back to you soon.

Jeppson

Probably your best bet is the Econolodge @ 715 W North Temple Street,
801-363-0062. It's just a couple of blocks from the Arena Trax station. You could hop Trax to get to the Intermodal Hub where you could board Frontrunner. The neighborhood is semi-seedy, but I work in the area and in the daytime is really quite safe. Hope this helps.

Jeppson

On my website I've documented my first Frontrunner trip, w/photos.

www.utahtransit.us/ride1.htm

Saw the passing train in push mode in one of the photos; on the double-track segments, is left-handed running the norm?

The answer is yes, coming into stations trains always diverge to the left, and most often on double track left-hand running is observed.

I did manage to visit FrontRunner a couple of weeks ago. My wife and I ended up staying in Ogden, in a Motel 6 on Washington Blvd. north of downtown. It was a short drive to the station downtown, and there was plenty of parking. The ride was a bit less than an hour each way. There were a fair number of riders on both trains (about 10am going south and 7:30pm going north). I was impressed to see people getting on and off with bicycles at almost every station. I was able to get only a few pictures at the two stations, and out the train window. They're on this page.

Here are the first month's stats for Frontrunner and other UTA rail:

www.utahtransit.us/may2008stats.htm

We take a short round trip on Frontrunner 7/11/2008 to see NJT Comet rebuilds.
Here goes:

www.utahtransit.us/cot.htm

Frontrunner continues to enjoy substantial traffic growth.

www.utahtransit.us/summerdat.htm

I was out there last month. The Salt Lake Central terminal is very well laid out. I hope they keep up the pace at which they're proceeding for their new project down to Provo.

The formal groundbreaking for Frontrunner South was today (8/12/2008). I'll get some photos as construction proceeds.

wow, they took those NJT cars and made them look good...

Frontrunner did a nice job on the outside of the C1's. Now lets see how different the inside is.