A lightrail boondoggle?

I love TRAX, but I'm not in love with TRAX at point of the Mountain. I'd love to see Utah County get light rail, and it seems insane that the two might not connect, but.....Eastern draper is a wasteland of single family homes. There is a rail corridor, but no ridership.

The Utah Legislature (made up of developers) would really like to get UTA to provide service to the Prison site, so they can sell it to the Silicon Slopes tech people. (Who, coming from California, really understand the value of proximity to rapid transit).

That said, the western alignment is less cost-effective, per new system rider:

East - $739 million - 33,000 a day = $22k/rider

West - $1200 million - 44,700 a day = $25k/rider

Been having a long series of conversations on Twitter with 'A Bus Rider' (@sp_redelectric), who has been pretty persuasive in articulating the ways in which Portland has overbuilt its rail network: extending light rail to quasi-rural areas, and then building a truly appalling failure of a commuter rail (WES). 

When I think of where I want TRAX to go, it's not to Utah County (FrontRunner has been fine).  And the Provo-Orem BRT (UVX) has been done well, so I can't claim Utah County can't do BRT. They have BRT to a high standard (not the crap BRT of the Salt Lake County MAX). So....does Utah County really need light rail? The rail corridor they have isn't exactly central to anything. Might the be better off with an electrified FrontRunner (as regional rail) and a bunch of local bus?

The Owl Line

I've written previously about an 'Owl' line for TRAX, running from the Airport to the Univerisity Hospital.(Map)

Today, I read a Tribune Editorial which said:

Honestly, to justify the more expensive station, we may eventually to have to throw in even more money. Specifically, the trains need to start earlier and run later to catch more airport employees and travelers. (Current ridership to the airport is about 1,100 per day.) 

UTA can't run TRAX any later due the deal they cut with Union Pacific regarding use of the rail-road tracks TRAX runs on, viz: UP gets to run freight on the tracks after midnight. But it's only on the part of the Blue line south of about 1100 South.  So an 'Owl' line, running up to and after midnight, could be run on the street-running portions of TRAX. The termini on each end (the airport and the hospital) are both 24 hour destinations. However, the majority of the ridership for both of those destinations are going to come from employees, and TRAX doesn't connect to the lower income neighborhoods where orderlies and baggage handlers make their homes. (There is a reason that the Green line connects to West Valley). Given that we can't make that connection by TRAX, it will have to be by bus. Given the distances, it should likely be BRT-like (ie MAX). Currently on the planning books are two N-S corridors, 5600 W. and State Street. Operating those two routes on longer hours, in combination with the Owl line, would provide access to 24-hour employment at a large number of destinations. Running through SLC downtown, it would also serve the cleaners/janitors, and may, just maybe, the bar-going crowd...