TRAX turns 10: UTA move to rail line seems to have grown on residents

Barbara Toomer never dodges a fight with the Utah Transit Authority when fares and access to the disabled are at stake.

In 2001, the West Valley City woman and her friends exited their wheelchairs during an afternoon rush hour and sat on light rail tracks in downtown Salt Lake City, stopping TRAX for about 20 minutes. The sit-down was a protest of a paratransit fare proposal.

As much as Toomer has clashed with UTA management over the years, its services have grown on her — especially light rail, which is 10 years old today.

"I have never ever had any trouble at all with TRAX and I really like TRAX," she said. "I use it every time I go downtown."

A new transportation era rolled in with TRAX a decade ago. Steel wheels became an alternative to rubber tires. And TRAX was the bellwether to more trains: Since the original Salt Lake City-to-Sandy TRAX line opened, it has been expanded three times. Higher speed FrontRunner CommuterRail from Salt Lake City to Ogden opened.

By 2015, UTA plans to add 70 additional miles of railroad to the system: light rail extensions to Salt Lake City International Airport, West Valley City, Draper and the West Jordan area, and commuter rail to Provo.

The introduction of trains to public transit hasn't been without criticism. Bus routes were changed to drop people off at train stations. But some passengers prefer to ride buses since train fares traditionally have been more expensive.

"It's been a real problem for a lot of people," said Toomer, who works for the Disability Rights Action Committee. "They did cut a lot of routes out and one of the reasons is they wanted to get people onto TRAX."

Wheels of light rail were spinning in the heads of UTA's executives 15 years before it became a reality, UTA spokesman Gerry Carpenter said.

UTA brought the issue before Salt Lake County voters in 1992 in the form of a sales tax increase for a handful of transit projects. Voters said no.

"Nevertheless, in 1993 UTA purchased the Union Pacific right-of-way in Salt Lake County, as a 'protective buy' for approximately $18 million," Carpenter said, explaining that even though UTA didn't have money to build the track, they thought buying the property would keep and protect the right-of-way for future use. "This is the railway corridor between 900 South in Salt Lake City and the Salt Lake-Utah county line that eventually became the Sandy to Salt Lake TRAX line."

In 1995, UTA scored a Federal Transit Administration grant that covered 80 percent of the estimated $312 million to build the Salt Lake City-Sandy line.