Lied Trail in SLC

“How do you grind an entire county’s mass transit system to a halt, and force 10,000 angry transit riders to stand in the cold of a Rocky Mountains winter for an hour? Scrap the buses and go Light-Rail. Monday Dec 27 at 4:10 pm an old grain silo caught on fire in Murray UT, 11km (7mi) south of Salt Lake City, smack dab in the middle of our 24km (15mi) LR line called TRAX. The fire closed the TRAX line from 4:10pm to 9:30pm. The resulting chaos forced some 6,000 southbound commuters and 4,000 northbound B-ball fans to stand out in the cold for an hour. It took the UTA 40 min to establish a bus bridge past the closed section of track. This is the second system closure, and the sixth accident in the 23 days since TRAX grand opening on Dec 4. I was fortunate to be able to watch the whole thing as I drove my personal transit vehicle, otherwise known as an automobile, from TRAX station to TRAX station. Passengers were left in the cold, dinners were late, and 4,000 seats were left empty during the first and second quarters of the big game. Light-Rail is designed to fail.

Believe me when I say, ‘Light-Rail is NOT an improvement over a bus transit system.’ And if you are given the choice, choose NO LIGHT RAIL. PS We like to strike the R in TRAX. You just end up with scrap metal and TAX. And we also say our light rail is traxident-prone!’ “ Groan. (Drew Chamberlain thenolightrailguy@juno.

com 801 282 4877)