UTA accepts agreement with Salt Lake on TRAX line
The Salt Lake City Council added a few new wrinkles to UTA's proposal on its way to a 7-0 vote Tuesday in favor of the plan. They include a stated preference of 400 West, over 600 West, as the corridor that will connect the existing downtown TRAX system with the North Temple route to the airport and extension of the bus and TRAX free-fare zone to 300 East to include the Salt Lake City Library. UTA's assistant general manager Mike Allegra said the agreement represents the culmination of years of effort.
"This is a summit day for UTA," Allegra said. "As I reflect back on, frankly, the last 18 years of trying to get a line to the airport ... there have been a whole series of false summits ... but I am very happy to have brought to the board today the conclusion of that process."
Allegra said the pact with Salt Lake City provides the final missing piece of UTA's expansive Frontlines 2015 project, which includes new TRAX lines in Draper, West Valley, and the FrontRunner south commuter-rail line.
The new line will provide service to the airport from downtown with six new stations, including the final stop at the airport's passenger terminal. North Temple will be reconfigured to four lanes, with outside bike lanes and a center-located rail line. Three new bridges will also be constructed as part of the project.
The extension of the downtown free-fare zone concludes a debate between the city and UTA that goes back to before the inception of TRAX service. UTA general manager John Inglish said that as the system has grown, the complexity of defining and supporting free-fare areas has grown with it.
"When the free-fare zone was initiated, many years ago, we were just a bus company and it made sense," Inglish said. "With the new, multi-transit system, there are more challenges."
Inglish said that a new electronic fare payment system, expected to be on-line by the end of the year, could ease the logistics of operating a free zone, and will also give the agency much more accurate rider info, which should aid in determining the future of free rides downtown. In anticipation of this new system, UTA asked for, and received, a caveat to the city's request for an extended free-ride zone-that the topic could be revisited at a later date when the agency had new data to present.
Inglish said the extension could be in place this month.
E-mail: araymond@desnews.com
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