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Kim Johnson ReportingNew commuter rail trains will soon run along the Wasatch Front, but figuring out what to call the transit system proved challenging. UTA announced its decision today.
It's not an acronym, like San Fransico's BART or Dallas's DART. It's more along the lines of Seattle's Sounder, named for the Puget Sound, or San Diego's Coaster, where the trains travel the coastline.
John Inglish, UTA General Manager: "And that got us thinking along those lines and away from the acronyms, because those can get you into trouble."
WART, for Wasatch Area Rapid Transit didn't seem all that appealing. The acronym for Salt Lake Urban Transit was even worse. So UTA decided on FrontRunner, because the commuter trains will connect the people and places on the Wasatch Front.
Except for six miles of shared tracks, these red, white and blue diesel-electric trains will travel on brand new tracks east of the Union Pacific Railroad mainline.
John Inglish: "It allows us to operate our trains at a very high speed. We'll have very high reliability like TRAX. We'll be able to operate every twenty minutes during the rush hours, so we're going to be a very attractive alternative to driving down I-15 from Ogden to Salt Lake."
The first 44-mile phase will run from Weber County to Salt Lake County. Twenty-percent of the project is complete. It'll be ready for riders in early 2008. Eventually, FrontRunner trains will ferry commuters from Brigham City to Payson.
