Utah Transit Authority - Light Rail (TRAX)

Light Rail (TRAX)

Population growth and accompanying congestion led to the study of the feasibility of light rail in the Salt Lake Valley in the early 1990s. A 1993 initiative to use tax revenues to purchase an underutilized rail corridor for potential light rail use was rejected by Salt Lake County voters. The County Commission opposed increasing taxes for light rail and even hired a lobbyist to this end. Nonetheless, the Utah Transit Authority moved forward and was able to make the purchase using other available funds.

UTA also lobbied for funding and in August 1995 won $240 million from the federal government as part of the budget for I-15 reconstruction. The light rail system was called Transit Express or more commonly TRAX. This federal grant amounted to over two-thirds the cost of the Blue Line to Sandy, and further bills would fund a second line to the University of Utah. Salt Lake City's successful bid to host the 2002 Winter Olympics gave the light rail project some priority over transit projects in other cities competing for federal funds; Secretary of Transportation Federico Peña explained, "The Winter Olympics in Salt Lake are not just Salt Lake's Olympics. They are the nation's Olympics." Nonetheless, UTA's cost-effective light rail project merited the support of the Federal Transit Administration and would have been funded and constructed regardless of the Olympics.

TRAX became operational 4 December 1999 with a 17.3-mile route—the Blue Line, then simply dubbed the Sandy/Salt Lake Line—from Sandy to Downtown Salt Lake City. In celebration, UTA offered free rides on the new line all day, and local residents stood in long lines to be packed into the new light rail cars. The Blue Line was expanded in April 2008 to the Salt Lake City Intermodal Hub (Salt Lake Central Station), and as part of UTA's FrontLines 2015 project, a three-station expansion of the line south to Draper is under construction.

Thanks to federal support, the initial 2.3-mile Red Line (or the University Line, as it was initially named), from downtown Salt Lake to the University of Utah, was operational by 15 December 2001—after 16 months of construction and well ahead of the original schedule. Construction was expedited to be completed before the 2002 Winter Olympics, to enable spectators to take TRAX to the opening ceremonies at Rice–Eccles Stadium. In light of heightened security in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, however, light rail service was suspended during the opening and closing ceremonies. Buses were used instead, and though also vulnerable, transported attendees without incident. A 1.5-mile extension to the University of Utah Medical Center was completed 29 September 2003, and a 10.6-mile expansion to South Jordan in the southwestern corner of the metropolitan area opened on 7 August 2011 with service to the Daybreak Community. At this same time TRAX lines began to be referred to by a color-coded name (rather than destinations) and the Red Line trains no longer traveled downtown, instead bypassing the city center and heading south.

The success of TRAX led to the creation of a third line—the Green Line—which runs from downtown Salt Lake to the West Valley Central Station in West Valley City. This line also opened on 7 August 2011, and services 15 stations. An expansion of the line, from downtown Salt Lake to the Salt Lake International Airport, is complete, with plans to begin serivce 14 April 2013.