The Good, the Bad, & the Snowy of Salt Lake City Transit

Salt Lake City might not be the first place you'd think to look for great transit, but the city and its robust light rail and regional rail system truly charmed and impressed me during my short stay. This is what the rest of North America can learn from UTA!

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Ever wondered why your city's transit just doesn't seem quite up to snuff? RMTransit is here to answer that, and help you open your eyes to all of the different public transportation systems around the world!

Reece (the RM in RMTransit) is an urbanist and public transport critic residing in Toronto, Canada, with the goal of helping the world become more connected through metros, trams, buses, high-speed trains, and all other transport modes.

[ReuInuzuka]

As a UTA employee, I often think about our shortcomings, but seeing such a positive video about our service is really nice 💜

[xsnozskwg]

Wow! An American city that manages to make the tricolour look pretty instead of garish, a network integrating modern technology and practices, and staffed and maintained by people who seem to care. It may not be perfect but it seems like Salt Lake City is headed in the right direction in a lot of ways. I hope the UTA gets all the funding it needs and more people are encouraged to both use it and copy it.

[sgtotaku]

As a maintenance employee at uta, I’m happy to hear such high praise from you. If you have questions about our system, let me know! I’ll answer anything I can.

[SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

FrontRunner wouldn't become a thing until 2008! As for light rail, 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 (surprise to no one). Construction for TRAX 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 extension. TRAX currently has 50 stations on three lines. Gee, it's like if you actually GIVE THINGS A CHANCE, they might end up great!

[metrofilmer]

I’m glad that you covered Salt Lake. As someone in who had lived in Denver and visited Salt Lake pretty regularly, I’ve always viewed it as a bit of a hidden gem that such a small and historically conservative region has actually built out a really solid rail system and is continuing to expand it which is (like many US transit projects) flying under the radar of a lot of people

[robk]

What I like about frontrunner is they they were smart enough to build its own tracks as opposed to just using preexisting freight tracks

[cmohl]

I am a Frontrunner engineer, I really appreciate such a great video highlighting the good points about UTA. I enjoy seeing your videos about transportation around the world, keep up the good work.

[Freck]

As a Salt Lake County resident I'm happy to hear some glowing reviews. Here are some of my thoughts. The SLC Airport connection was underfunded like everything was. There was a $60 million plan to bring the track right up to the concourse and integrate it into the airport, but because we always tragically underfund everything important, we didn't disappoint to do that in this case too. I 100% agree about the rail link to both Big and Little Cottonwood canyons. They are extremely congested with cars and a Gondola just seems like a silly way to actually address the traffic needs. Those canyons are watersheds and supply a lot of drinking water to the valley. To seriously address a permanent reduction in car traffic up those canyons, they really need to invest in rail. I'll also add that they need to also have a rail connection to Park City as well. That is one of the biggest unsupported commuter corridors in the SLC area and the canyon in the winter time is like a bobsled shoot. With the Olympics being actively bid for the 2030s I think that would be a perfect improvement to invest in as well. They really need to get Sunday service, and late night service going as well. If the bars close at 2am, there should be a train at 2:10am to get people home.

[thekickisNOGOOD]

Daily FrontRunner user here - fingers crossed the money in the state budget that’s appointed to double-track the entire line actually gets used! They also just retired some old Comet cars UTA bought from New Jersey, making each train a car smaller.

And a TRAX line up Little Cottonwood would be great, and they’re going to upgrade bus service while they build that gondola since it’s so expensive. Maybe they’ll see that working and scrap the eyesore gondola.

[cnj]

SLC resident here, glad you appreciated what we've got going on here.

[AverytheCubanAmerican]

Regarding the airport connection, that decision was made due to cost. It was supposed to be an elevated track to the second level that would connect indoors, but alas, they went with the cheaper alternative. I agree that it was a missed opportunity. The livery on the UTA vehicles is aesthetically pleasing! Part of getting people to take transit is to make it appealing, and they've succeeded in doing that (well...besides the Airport station). That aside, I definitely understand that embarrassment argument.

The main reason their TRAX system was built and opened in 1999 was in preparation for the 2002 Winter Olympics (like how the 2010 Winter Olympics bid motivated Vancouver to build the Canada Line). If they didn't win the right to host, I doubt they would've built TRAX. Heck, when it opened, there wasn't even a station at the airport! The airport wouldn't get one until 2013! TRAX ended up borrowing 29 Kinki Sharyo LRVs from Dallas to handle overcrowding during the Olympics! And another thing Utah did for the 2002 Winter Olympics for transport was for those heading to Soldier Hollow (for biathlon, Nordic combined, and cross-country) that the Heber Valley Railroad offered a special train service to Wasatch Mountain State Park on steam locomotives, and then horse-drawn sleighs took spectators to the venue.

[JakeStewart]

I took UTA for 2 years while going to the University of Utah.
It's free for students.
You don't have to worry about a parking pass at the school and I spent my time studying on the train instead of getting road rage in traffic! 😎

[devinmathews]

I have always thought highly of the UTA system. The sunday thing and how it doesn't run after midnight brings it down. I also love how anyone who visits Salt Lake mentions city creek mall

[twentysixbit]

Thanks for commenting on our little rail system! It means a lot someone is putting a spotlight on a system with so, so much potential!

[jacksongaskill]

Great video! I lived in SLC for 5 years and was a daily UTA user. I will say that UTA's doing a great job of improving density around its stations - if you take the red or blue lines south to Draper and West Jordan, huge apartment complexes have sprung up around the stations over the last 5-10 years. I lived in a brand new apartment right on the red line in West Jordan that took me straight to my office downtown and my University without transferring, which meant I often went a week or more without needing to drive. I also recommend looking into the Rio Grande plan, which addresses a lot of your suggestions about increasing density at hubs and moving some service indoors.

[ericfortney]

Please look into the Rio Grande Plan. It's a really unique initiative to return a historical train hub to it's former glory. It's an ambitious resident led initiative that could benefit from a dedicated video or even just a shout-out from a transit focused channel like you have here.

[LEB]

As a resident of SLC (Sugar House) and a transit user, it was nice to hear how we are doing. I don't get a chance to compare with other systems.

[joshuaadams]

I took trax when I was a student at the University of Utah. I loved the free service I received and it's use of extra trains during sporting events.

[neolithictransitrevolution]

The giant block sizes in Salt Lake are an issue for "activite mobility" and making a good urban downtown, huge steeet crossing with high speed traffic.

But, they also contain their own solution, because it means you can create bike paths and walking trails going through Mid Blocks that are entirely seperated from cars. A lot of nice "historic" downtowns have trouble seperating cars and roads, and have to remove cars to make an area safe and welcoming. Salt Lake doesn't need to expend the political capital to redesign alleyways.

[davidlazarovich]

Salt Lake should also consider buying from Stadler for the next order of tram/LRVs. It's a win for both because Salt Lake will have easy access to maintenance and Stadler will be able to loosen up the death grip Siemen's has on the North American LRV market and Salt Lake would be their proving ground.