Front Runner

So the commuter rail train, Front Runner, began service today. So I (James) decided to take the kids to the Roy station at 8:30am to welcome the train. When we got there we were able to grab a couple sandwiches, milk and juice and go and stand by the fence to watch for the train. At about 8:45am it arrived and we were able to wave to it and watch it come into the station. Colby though it was really neat and wanted to get on right then, I told him we would be able to ride it later in the afternoon.

We were planning a day trip to SLC, leave on the 3:15pm train, go to SLC, take TRAX to the Gateway, eat some dinner then head home about 6:00-6:30pm. What a great plan! So when Stephanie got home and we quickly got in the car and headed to the station. When we arrived, we encountered a huge line and the attendant said it was at least a 5 (that’s right...) a five hour wait, as they were only letting 30 people per station ride. We decided it wasn’t worth the wait and came home. Colby was very sad and upset cause he wanted to ride the train, we told him we would on a different day. 

About 5:30pm, Colby was still sad because he still wanted to ride the train, so to help cheer him up we told him we would go to Wendy’s for dinner. After we were done eating dinner, we decided to just drive by the Roy station to see how busy it was. When we got there the lines were short, so we decided to go for a ride. The line to Ogden was very short and we waited about 30 minutes for the next train to arrive. Once we were on the platform the UTA guy said the lines were getting short up and down the line and if we wanted we could ride into Ogden, stay on the train all the way back down to SLC and then ride back to Roy, so we did it.

What a fun ride! The train is awesome, we were able to sit on the upper deck and get a great view of peoples back yards, and the back of their houses, and even see what a few were eating for dinner! When we got along side the freeway we easily were traveling just as fast, if not faster than the cars on the freeway, plus the ride was so smooth, it hardly felt like you were moving. Some of the seats had a little table so you could get our your laptop on the ride down and use the free internet access available on the trains, what a great idea! The seats were comfortable and spacious and the views were great! It was a fun afternoon!