UTA wraps up double tracking project on Salt Lake City streetcar line

(Source: Progressive Railroading 04/10/2019)

Utah Transit Authority (UTA) officials earlier this week marked the completion of construction on a new section of double tracking on the S-Line streetcar route, which connects the Fairmont Station in Salt Lake City to the Central Pointe TRAX light-rail station in South Salt Lake City.

Begun in 2018, the project was designed to reduce the amount of time riders wait for trains, reduce congestion, improve air quality and provide better connections with UTA’s other modes of transportation, officials said in a press release. 

The project was funded with $4 million from Salt Lake County Infrastructure and by a $1.9 million Wasatch Front Regional Council Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement program grant.

The Salt Lake City County is also pledging $500,000 for additional operating costs for the first three years of double-track service. 

Since the S-Line streetcar service began in 2013, the  South Salt Lake and Sugar House areas have experienced “significant growth,” including 1,000 additional residential units and over 2 million square feet of redevelopment, they said. 

The area is experiencing revitalized communities due to rail, said Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson.

“UTA is helping us create an amazing web of transit throughout Salt Lake Valley,”  she said.