There and Back Again (Short Version)

As some of you may know, I travel to Ogden regularly to game with a group of old friends. It's about an hour's drive each way, which is not a big deal. Still, it can be expensive, especially with gas being as costly as it has been of late. So I've often relied on the Utah Transit Authority's excellent bus and light rail systems to get me there and back.

My usual method of getting there and back again goes something like this. I drive the 3 miles or so to the nearest light rail station, then take the train downtown. I transfer to the express bus, which gets me from downtown Salt Lake to Ogden in about an hour. Better still, the express bus drops me off less than a block from the home of Lord and Lady Mhoram, where our games take place. Once the evening's activities are over, I walk back down to Washington Boulevard, where I catch one of the more traditional buses back to Salt Lake. This bus takes nearly twice as long, but since the express buses don't run that late in the evening, that's really the only option. Upon reaching downtown SLC, I transfer back to light rail, which takes me back to my car. On a typical day, I leave my house around 12:20 p.m. and get back a little before 11:00.

This system, though time-consuming, is certainly an acceptable alternative to driving. It's certainly a lot cheaper. But lately, there has been a problem. We got a new driver on the route back from Ogden. And by 'new' I mean not only different than the previous driver, but also apparently inexperienced. This new driver hasn't figured out how to maintain a constant speed between stops. The last two times I've ridden this route, I've had to endure nearly two hours of not only the usual start-stop, but also speed-up slow-down speed-up-again. I've been left nauseous the last two times I've ridden. So I gave up the busing a couple of months ago. I've been driving instead.

Until yesterday. Yesterday, a new option became available to me.

Last weekend, UTA started its Front Runner service. Front Runner is a heavy rail (i.e., driven by a diesel locomotive, as opposed to the electric powered train cars of light rail) transport that runs between Ogden and Salt Lake, and will eventually run from Pleasant Grove in the north all the way past Provo in the south. It travels along the traditional rail lines that have been in this valley for a century and a half. Once upon a time, the main way to get between Salt Lake and Ogden, other than by horse and wagon, way by train. What was old is new again.

Front Runner is a premium service, so it costs more than the traditional but ride does. A standard bus or light rail fare is $1.75. Express buses are about twice that. Front Runner has a completely different fare structure that's based on the distance you travel. It's $2.50 from any station to any adjacent station, with each station beyond the first adding an additional 50¢. The fare from Ogden to Salt Lake totals $5.00.

This certainly makes the return trip on my journey more expensive. But is it still cost-effective compared to driving? There's only one way to find out: Do the Math.

The distance we have to take into account is the distance between the light rail station where I leave my car and the Intermodal Hub in Ogden, my connection at the other end. According to Yahoo! Maps, the distance between the two is 39 miles. This is the additional distance I'd have to drive—each way—to get to and from my gaming session. The total cost of the trip via UTA is $8.50 ($1.75 for light rail plus an additional $1.75 for the Express bus on the way up, $5.00 for Front Runner on the way back). Or, to put it another way, the trip costs me 11¢ per mile.

Now, is that cheaper than driving? Let's see. The last time I put gas in my car, it cost me $3.299 per gallon. Let's call it $3.30 for simplicity. At that price, $8.50 would buy just over 2½ gallons of gas (2.575757....). To make a trip of miles on 2.58 (rounded) gallons of gas, my car would have to get 30.2 miles per gallon just to break even.

Given that I know Lula typically gets between 20 and 22 mpg, UTA is clearly the more cost effective option. Even assuming the better of the two figures, driving costs me 15¢ per mile in gas alone, not counting wear and tear, depreciation, and so forth. That translates to a 27% savings—to say nothing of road rage avoidance and environmental concerns.

And for those of you who know a little about Front Runner and are looking for an opinion from somebody who's actually ridden it: I loved it. It was a smooth ride, the seats are comfortable, and it's generally a lot quieter than riding the bus (except when they have to blow the horn at street crossings, which happens a dozen or so times during the trip). Plus, they have free wi-fi on board, and between the seats in some places are tables, making mobile computing a breeze. It's an order of magnitude better than the nausea-inducing bus rides about which I wrote earlier. It's even better than the express bus, and really not that much more expensive.

Once the weather improves, and the walk from the Ogden station to the Mhorams' house is a little more pleasant, I may even begin riding the train both ways.