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 official name of 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 51 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 30-minute headway.
Lines and stations
Rolling stock
117 active railcars
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
29 UTDC LRVs (1041-1069) were purchased second-hand from the Santa Clara VTA in 2004 and refurbished for service on TRAX. These were withdrawn from service in 2018.
To handle the increased crowds during the 2002 Winter Olympics, 29 Kinki Sharyo LRVs were borrowed from the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) between 2001 and 2003.
Varying based on projected ridership, the Blue Line typically operates 3-4 car trains, the Green Line 2-3 car trains, and the Red Line 2-4 car trains.
History
The first line, running from downtown Salt Lake City south to Sandy, was completed in 1999. The second line from downtown to the University of Utah was completed in 2001 and extended in 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 of America.
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.