Riding the rails
There are no comments for this page [ Add Comment ]Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Know your customer.
That's the mantra for a successful business. How can you hope to sell your product -- whatever it may be -- if you haven't identified who might be buying?
The Utah Transit Authority apparently knows its customers for FrontRunner commuter rail, which is scheduled to be up and running in about a year from now. And the transit authority apparently believes its FrontRunner ridership -- daily commuters -- won't blink at the fares announced last week.
It'll cost $2.50 to climb on board and ride to the next station. Ogden to Roy: $2.50. Layton to Farmington: $2.50. But for every station past that first one, it'll be another 50 cents. So, from Ogden to Clearfield: $3. Or, from Ogden to Salt Lake City, passing the Roy, Clearfield, Layton, Farmington and Woods Cross stations, it'll be a $5 fare. One way.
But if you live in Layton, the fare is less. Layton to Salt Lake, one way, would be $3.50. And then that much to get back again. But if you make the trip every weekday -- or even most -- it would be cheaper still to buy a $145 monthly pass. If FrontRunner were in operation now, in March 2007, and whether you live in Weber or Davis County and drive to Salt Lake City most weekdays, few of us could honestly say we spend less than the $6.59 average daily price -- there are 22 weekdays in March this year -- it would take to buy a monthly pass. Gasoline alone for most of our vehicles costs more each day, and commuter rail looks like even more of a bargain when you add wear and tear and the depreciation of racking up all those miles on the car or truck.
It would be cheaper still, if you could catch a UTA bus to and from home to the nearest commuter rail station.
Now, about that knowing-your-customer mantra: UTA is interested primarily in taking commuters off the road during morning and afternoon peak drive times. It will be a more expensive option for three or four -- or more -- members of a family to ride the rails to a Jazz game or attending an evening of theater at the University of Utah. You could do it, yes, but it starts to get expensive pretty quickly. Indeed, UTA never considered a reduced-pricing strategy for off-peak hours when the trains are running every 30 minutes during the day, or every 60 minutes in the evenings.
But for commuters, this looks like a good deal. Especially given the comfort of the FrontRunner cars -- individual cushioned seats, wireless Internet access or just enjoying the time to read the Standard-Examiner on the way to work. It's been a long time coming, and we're excited for spring 2008 to arrive.
Text 
