News: February 2000
14 February 2000
- Will East/West be done for the Olympics or not? The Utah Transit Authority notified the Salt Lake City Council that the East-West light rail line will not be competed before the 2002 Olympic Games without increased cost of construction. However, two of the contractors who are bidding on the project, claim that it would not be a problem to have the project done before the Olympics. The Salt Lake City Council is angered that it will not be done in time for the Olympics, but the UTA pointed to the City Council as the reason, since they held up the project for almost 2 months before working out an agreement for the line. The estimated start up date for the line will be March of 2002. One point should be noted is the fact that the North/South light rail line opened almost 4 months ahead of schedule.
- Drew Chamberlain, a vocal opponent of Salt Lake's light rail line is planning to use pro-highway information from Orange County, CA, to bash the light rail line in the Salt Lake news media in the coming months. However, the information that Mr. Chamberlain will be using as 'facts' is nothing but a survey done before and after a serious of highway improvements. They survey ask what is the most serious problem facing Orange County. Before the highway improvements 41% of the respondents said congestion was the number one issues, while after the improvements 9% of the respondents said congestion was the number one issue. The problems with the survey does not take into account who was surveyed each time, what other issues came up between the two surveys, and that the survey does not say that congestion was relieved with the improvements.