There are so many things I love about my job, but the commute isn't one of them. My office is 50 miles from my house and about 90% of the journey is on the freeway. Why then does it take me 90 minutes to get to work and 90 minutes to two hours to get home? The speed limit is 65, but traffic often crawls at 10-30 mph, especially at the bottlenecks and usual spots for wrecks.
When I first started working in Salt Lake City, I considered taking the bus to work. Unfortunately, using mass transit would have taken more than 2.5 hours. My days are long enough without adding 5 hours for the commute each day! There may finally be answer on the horizon, however.
FRONTRUNNER arrives in Provo! This is Utah's first commuter rail line and the first section connected Ogden to Salt Lake City. The section connecting Salt Lake City to Provo was completed a few months ago, but the testing and training is now done and Frontrunner service to Provo will begin on Monday, December 10. I've been watching the trains zooming along the tracks and wishing I could take a ride. This last Sunday, my wish came true.
My family and I boarded Frontrunner at the Provo station. There were lots of seats and we loved that we could sit on the main level of the car or upstairs. We chose to ride upstairs and Dyllen was even brave enough to sit facing backwards.
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| Dyllen and Dexter |
Roughly half of the seating sections had a small table. There are even electrical outlets under those tables. Perfect for doing a little work on your computer or watching a movie!
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| Dwayne (hidden from view) watches movies with his dad |
Dwayne watched movies while doing some origami. He even sat there and ate dinner at his little table on the return trip, but I don't think they would normally allow that.
Our trip was in the evening and we were a little disappointed that it was so difficult to see out the windows. I'm guessing that the view is a little better in the daylight hours, but the tinting on the windows is very reflective at night. You'd have to turn off the lights in the passenger car to eliminate the reflection.
Upon reaching the Salt Lake City station, we walked over to the waiting area for Trax and hopped aboard to go see the lights at Temple Square. We were in the free fare zone and the green Trax line took us to The Gateway Mall, Energy Solutions Arena, Temple Square, and City Creek. One word of caution if you've never ridden a subway or commuter rail before - trains only stop for 30 seconds and you need to be ready to get on or off the train quickly. You can stop the doors from closing, but it takes some serious effort. I had to run interference to get Dyllen off the train without suffering any damage.
It was so nice to arrive in Salt Lake City relaxed and ready to go. No stop-and-go traffic. No traffic jams. No parking hassles. I worked on some tatting along the way and felt so good about accomplishing something.
The ride is pretty smooth although there are some minor lurches as you take off from each station. Between the smoothness of the ride and the gentle swaying of the train, Dexter managed to fall asleep on the ride home. I'm just glad it was him and not me since I would hate to be caught snoring in public.
I'm so excited about having another option for getting to and from work. Figuring out the way to connect from the train station to my office may be a challenge though. We will see... I just loved feeling relaxed instead of stressed out after traveling between Provo and Salt Lake City.
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| Bike racks |
If you want to take a preview ride,
UTA is allowing people to ride Frontrunner this Saturday, December 8, if you bring a donation for the food bank. Check it out!
There are so many things I love about my job, but the commute isn't one of them. My office is 50 miles from my house and about 90% of the journey is on the freeway. Why then does it take me 90 minutes to get to work and 90 minutes to two hours to get home? The speed limit is 65, but traffic often crawls at 10-30 mph, especially at the bottlenecks and usual spots for wrecks.
When I first started working in Salt Lake City, I considered taking the bus to work. Unfortunately, using mass transit would have taken more than 2.5 hours. My days are long enough without adding 5 hours for the commute each day! There may finally be answer on the horizon, however.
FRONTRUNNER arrives in Provo! This is Utah's first commuter rail line and the first section connected Ogden to Salt Lake City. The section connecting Salt Lake City to Provo was completed a few months ago, but the testing and training is now done and Frontrunner service to Provo will begin on Monday, December 10. I've been watching the trains zooming along the tracks and wishing I could take a ride. This last Sunday, my wish came true.
My family and I boarded Frontrunner at the Provo station. There were lots of seats and we loved that we could sit on the main level of the car or upstairs. We chose to ride upstairs and Dyllen was even brave enough to sit facing backwards.
Roughly half of the seating sections had a small table. There are even electrical outlets under those tables. Perfect for doing a little work on your computer or watching a movie!
Dwayne watched movies while doing some origami. He even sat there and ate dinner at his little table on the return trip, but I don't think they would normally allow that.
Our trip was in the evening and we were a little disappointed that it was so difficult to see out the windows. I'm guessing that the view is a little better in the daylight hours, but the tinting on the windows is very reflective at night. You'd have to turn off the lights in the passenger car to eliminate the reflection.
Upon reaching the Salt Lake City station, we walked over to the waiting area for Trax and hopped aboard to go see the lights at Temple Square. We were in the free fare zone and the green Trax line took us to The Gateway Mall, Energy Solutions Arena, Temple Square, and City Creek. One word of caution if you've never ridden a subway or commuter rail before - trains only stop for 30 seconds and you need to be ready to get on or off the train quickly. You can stop the doors from closing, but it takes some serious effort. I had to run interference to get Dyllen off the train without suffering any damage.
I'm so excited about having another option for getting to and from work. Figuring out the way to connect from the train station to my office may be a challenge though. We will see... I just loved feeling relaxed instead of stressed out after traveling between Provo and Salt Lake City.
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