TRAX is a light rail system in the Salt Lake Valley of Utah, in the United States, serving Salt Lake City and many of its suburbs throughout Salt Lake County. The system's official name, Transit Express, is rarely, if ever, used. The system is operated by the Utah Transit Authority (UTA). All TRAX trains are electric, receiving power from overhead wires.
TRAX has 52 stations on three lines. The Blue Line provides service from Downtown Salt Lake City to Draper. The Red Line provides service from the University of Utah to the Daybreak Community of South Jordan. The Green Line provides service from Salt Lake City International Airport to West Valley City. In , the system had a ridership of , or about per weekday as of .
Operations
Service characteristics TRAX operates seven days a week, with the exception of some holidays. It operates Monday through Friday from approximately 4:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. with a 15-minute headway on each line during the entirety of operating hours. It operates weekends from approximately 5:00 am to nearly midnight, with a 15-minute headway on Saturdays and a 30-minute headway on Sundays.
Outside of major events, based on projected ridership, the Blue Line typically operates 2-3 car trains, the Green Line 2 car trains, and the Red Line 2-4 car trains.
Lines and stations
TRAX Lines Line Opened(extensions) Stations Length Terminals Blue LineUTA Route 701 1999(2008, 2013) 25 Downtown Salt Lake City – Draper(Salt Lake Central – Draper Town Center) Red LineUTA Route 703 2001(2003, 2011) 27 University of Utah (Salt Lake City) – Daybreak (South Jordan)(University Medical Center – Daybreak Parkway)Green LineUTA Route 704 2011(2013) 19 Salt Lake City International Airport – West Valley City(Airport – West Valley Central)
Rolling stock
Current TRAX has 117 active light rail vehicles: 23 Siemens SD-100 LRVs (1001–1023) built 1998 17 Siemens SD-160 LRVs (1024–1040) built 2001–2003 77 Siemens S70 LRVs (1101–1177) built 2010–2012 In 2024, UTA ordered 20 Stadler Citylink vehicles, with upwards to 80 vehicles, to replace the Siemens SD-100 and SD-160 LRVs. They are expected to enter service in 2028. They will be built in Salt Lake City. +TRAX Rolling StockYearManufacturerModelImageFleet numbersQuantityReferences1998SiemensSD-1001001–1023232001–2003SiemensSD-1601024–1040172010–2012SiemensS701101–1177772027–2028StadlerCitylink20 + 60 options(on order)
Former
To handle the increased crowds during the 2002 Winter Olympics, 29 Kinki Sharyo LRVs were borrowed by UTA from the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) between 2001 and 2003. The additional cars were compatible with the TRAX system's infrastructure and were unneeded at the time for DART as several projects remained under construction.
In July 2003, UTA approved the acquisition of 29 second-hand UTDC LRVs (1041–1069) that had been used by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority for the VTA light rail system. The first VTA car was delivered in March 2004 and entered service later that year. They were refurbished by Bombardier Transportation in 2007 alongside additional cars from New Jersey Transit. The VTA cars were withdrawn from service in 2018.
History In 1984, the UTA, Utah Department of Transportation, and the Wasatch Front Regional Council conducted a joint study known as the "I-15/State Street Corridor Alternatives Analysis", which concluded that automobile traffic on those two roadways would increase and become more congested over time. The construction of a light rail system parallel to the interstate emerged as the UTA's preferred option to decrease congestion.Jonsson, Dave. "Add I-15 Lanes, Light-Rail System, Transport Commission Urged", Salt Lake Tribune, July 7, 1990, page 1D."Panel to Seek Answers to Traffic Woes", Salt Lake Tribune, December 21, 1990, page 10B. In 1990, a state law was passed allowing Salt Lake County to increase local sales tax by 0.25 percent, with 75 percent of the revenue going to construction of the light rail system and the other 25 percent to expand Interstate 15, dependent on a referendum approving the increase.Rasmussen, Craig. "Each day, a quarter million motorists commute in county", Utah Now, July 15, 1990, page 91. The referendum was held on November 3, 1992, and it failed, with 57 percent of county voters rejecting the measure.Smart, Christopher. "Light Rail Derailed, But Proposal May Return", Salt Lake Tribune, November 5, 1992, page B3.
Despite the referendum result, the UTA agreed in January 1993 to purchase 23 miles of trackage from Union Pacific, with most of the cost covered by federal funding.Jonsson, Dave. "UTA Will Buy Rail Right of Way", Salt Lake Tribune, January 14, 1993, page C1. With the local tax increase having been rejected, UTA depended on funding from the Federal Transit Administration to construct the line. Congress rejected that funding in June 1995, but the urgency of building transit in the area grew later that month when Salt Lake City was awarded the 2002 Winter Olympics. In August 1995, the UTA and FTA signed a Full Funding Grant Agreement, requiring the UTA to construct the line n=by December 2000. The FTA offered to cover 80 percent of construction costs, but the agreement was binding whether Congress approved the federal grants or not."The Rolly Report: Olympic Gold?", Salt Lake Tribune, June 25, 1995, page A2.Baltezore, Jay. "Corradini to McKeown: City Wants Light Rail", Salt Lake Tribune, October 17, 1995, page C-1.
After federal funding was approved, the system was given the name TRAX on March 3, 1997,Keahey, John. "Light Rail Rolling Closer To Reality: It Has a Name", Salt Lake Tribune, March 4, 1997, page D-1. and a groundbreaking ceremony was held on April 10.Keahey, John. "April Ceremony to Signal Light Rail's Beginnings", Salt Lake Tribune, March 20, 1997, front page and page A6. The first line, running from downtown Salt Lake City south to Sandy, opened on December 4, 1999. A branch extending from downtown to Rice–Eccles Stadium was completed on December 15, 2001, two months before the Olympic opening ceremony was held there, and further extended to the University of Utah Hospital on September 29, 2003.
An extension to the Salt Lake City Intermodal Hub was completed in April 2008. In August 2011, two extensions to South Jordan and West Valley City were completed. With the opening of these two extensions in 2011, the TRAX lines were renamed as colors instead of destinations, with the Blue Line running from the Salt Lake City Intermodal Hub to Sandy, the Red Line running from the University of Utah Medical Center to the Daybreak community in South Jordan, and the Green Line running from the intermodal hub to the West Valley Intermodal Hub.
In 2013 the Green Line was realigned slightly north and away from the Salt Lake City Intermodal Hub, allowing for the opening of the extension to the Salt Lake City International Airport. Several months later, in August 2013, the Blue Line was extended further south to Draper (which opened August 18, 2013). The extensions to South Jordan, West Valley City, Draper, and the Airport were funded in part by a Salt Lake County sales tax increase that would pay for all four of the proposed TRAX extensions. A letter of intent signed with the Federal Transit Administration on September 24, 2007, secured the remaining funding for the light rail lines.
Both the University Line and its extension to the University Medical Center were completed ahead of schedule. A daily ridership of 15,000 was expected for the initial line in 1999. By the beginning of 2008, the expanded system of served an estimated 40,000 passengers each day. Ridership for the fourth quarter of 2012 was reported to be at 60,600, making it the ninth-busiest light rail system in the United States.
Light rail in the Salt Lake Valley was first seriously discussed in the late 1980s to provide an alternative to traffic congestion on I-15, but the idea was met with criticism. On October 10, 1988, Congress approved $5 million in funds to preserve land along the proposed light rail corridor. Funding for the light rail line, however, remained uncertain. After Salt Lake City won the bid for the 2002 Winter Olympics in 1995, UTA used the city's host status to accelerate obtaining funding through the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). Construction began in 1997. Protesters at the groundbreaking insisted light rail would be dangerous and a waste of money. Public opinion remained divided and businesses on Main Street in downtown Salt Lake City suffered during the construction period.
After the north–south line opened in late 1999 with sixteen stations, ridership expectations were quickly met. The system was enthusiastically embraced by valley residents, to the surprise of many, and once-skeptical communities soon began clamoring for extensions.
Funding for the University Line to Rice-Eccles Stadium allowed it to be completed in 2001 with four new stations, ahead of schedule and the Olympics. An extension to the University Medical Center that added three new stations was completed on September 29, 2003, fifteen months ahead of schedule. An infill station at 900 South in Salt Lake City was constructed in 2005, and a second infill station, at 9400 South in Sandy (Sandy Expo), opened in August 2006. On December 13, 2006, UTA's board of trustees voted to change the name of the station next to the Delta Center to "Arena" in response to the renaming of the Delta Center to EnergySolutions Arena (which is once again known as the Delta Center).
On February 23, 2006, plans for extending the main line westward to the current Salt Lake City Intermodal Hub near the Gateway were approved. Two stations were built near the Gateway, as well as one at the Salt Lake Central Station (Salt Lake Intermodal Hub). They opened in April 2008, bringing the total number of stations to 28.
UTA has two service centers for TRAX maintenance: the Midvale Rail Service Center, which is just off the Red Line in Midvale, southwest of its junction with the Blue Line, and the Jordan River Service Center, which is just off the Green Line northeast of River Trail. The Jordan River building was originally an old warehouse for ZCMI, which had recently ceased operations and was renovated into a rail service center in 1999. The Midvale Center was similarly repurposed from a former warehouse around the time of the Red and Green lines opening in 2011, it was also built to handle UTA's brand new Siemens S70 LRV's. Utah Railway (under its subsidiary Salt Lake City Southern Railroad and with contracts from BNSF) and the Savage Bingham & Garfield Railroad both operate freight service over TRAX tracks via trackage rights.
An additional infill station, 600 South Main Street in Salt Lake City, along all three lines, opened on July 26, 2022. The station was part of the initial plans for the system, but the demand was not at the level needed for a station until recently.
FrontLines 2015 On September 21, 2006, a property tax hike proposal was replaced with a general transportation quarter-cent sales tax hike that was voted on and approved on November 7 of that year. On December 21, 2006, the Salt Lake County Council created a priority list for the sales tax, saying TRAX and commuter rail should take priority. A letter of intent signed with the Federal Transit Administration on September 24, 2007, secured the remaining $500 million in funding for the light rail lines. These funds were used to finance the FrontLines 2015 expansion project, which added four TRAX extensions by 2015 (as well as an expansion to FrontRunner commuter rail).
In order to support planned TRAX expansion, UTA ordered 77 Siemens S70 light rail vehicles from Siemens. It is the company's largest light rail contract in the United States to date.