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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Transit Authority leaders called TRAX, the $312 million light-rail project, "a miracle" when they launched the system Dec. 4, 1999.
"We did it without raising taxes and with a lot of exposure," said then-UTA general manager John Inglish, according to reports from the event. "We had plenty of scrutiny throughout."
Salt Lake County voters had rejected a sales tax increase that would have helped fund the project about seven years before the project's first 15 miles began operation, and it still had its detractors when it opened. However, the turning point came on June 16, 1995, when the International Olympic Committee named Salt Lake City host of the 2002 Winter Olympics and Paralympics.
UTA used this bid to help secure massive funding from the Federal Transit Administration, which had agreed to cover 80% of the project by 1996, the Deseret News reported at the time.
The service was eventually expanded in 2001 to include service up to the University of Utah, where many Olympic facilities were set up. It's also grown since the Olympics with addition of the Green Line and extension of the Blue Line into Draper that took place years after the Games, boosting the service to its current footprint.
While ridership hasn't quite recovered since the COVID-19 pandemic, its popularity today is now the closest since pre-pandemic levels with a little more than 41,600 average weekday boardings through the first half this year.
Nearly 25 years later, TRAX might be one of the most visible functioning legacy projects tied to the first time Salt Lake City hosted the Winter Olympics. So, as Utah seeks to lock up its bid to host the global event again in 2034, could there be another major transit legacy project from the second time around?
The next big transit projects
There are several big projects on the horizon that could completely change transit service within the Wasatch Front and Wasatch Back communities in the next 10 years. These include:
- Double-tracking FrontRunner lines, which would open the door for 15-minute service during peak periods and regular Sunday service. The commuter rail service opened well after the 2002 Winter Olympics.
- The TechLink TRAX Study, a project that would expand service in downtown Salt Lake City and a line to the University of Utah's Research Park. This would also open the door for a new Orange Line.
- The Midvalley Connector Bus Rapid Transit project, a 7-mile system that would run through parts of Murray, Taylorsville and West Valley City.
- State Route 224 Bus Rapid Transit, a High Valley Transit and Summit County project that could open as early as late 2025.
These are in the works, but UTA executive director Jay Fox says he's not sure how many of them may get wrapped into any Olympics-related funding.
"The nice thing is that all of our plans already existed before an announcement was ever made," he told KSL.com, as a FrontRunner train pulled out of Salt Lake Central Station behind him. "(These) were already part of the planning."
Federal and study funding have already been attached to some of these project, including the double-tracking and SR-224 bus projects. UTA also received funds to help them replace their Siemens SD-100 and SD-160 cars in the coming years. Fox said all the high-board level rail cars primarily used for the Blue Line will be replaced in the coming years.
It's unclear whether the Olympics will generate more federal funds than what's already expected from transportation grants.
"The federal funding coming in as part of our normal funding for any transit project," he said. "There's no expectation that there's going to be a tranche of money specifically set aside for the Olympics, but we continue to be successful in our discretionary grants and all these projects."
In short, anything the UTA receives ahead of the Olympics would be gravy that could, in theory, speed up project timelines.
Planning for 2034
While there may not be any additional major projects beyond the big three on UTA's radar, the agency will also work with several others to come up with an Olympics transportation plan by 2034.
Last year's NBA All-Star Game, held in Salt Lake City, may have offered a preview as to what transit may look like for the Games. UTA operated 24-hour Green Line TRAX service between downtown Salt Lake City and Salt Lake City International Airport, and it's possible something similar could exist within the city again.
It's trickier to offer that service beyond 1300 South because most of the line south of Ballpark Station is shared with Utah Railway, which pulls freight in the early morning hours.
These are the types of discussions that are expected to take place over the next decade.
"There's no agreements on how we'd do that. It's 10 years away, but that's a big focus for us — to make sure that we're moving people at all hours," Fox said. "It's a long-term effort ... and we'll keep building and building and building until we get there."
