Sugar House trolley? Support is growing

White has scheduled a public meeting to further discuss his proposal. The meeting is set for 2 p.m. today near 1000 East and Sugarmont Drive (2225 South), across the street from Fairmont Park and the existing Sugar House rail corridor.

The involvement of the engineering students is a big step in the right direction, but White knows his idea has a long way to go before it can be seriously considered.

"I'll be honest, I have not yet received one official permission at all, so we're taking this one step at a time," he said.

"It would be real nice to have seed funding if anybody or any corporation or any organization would like to help out. That would be to help get the engineering pushed along quicker and make presentations to the governments."

White is seeking about $100,000 to get the process kick-started. He estimates it would cost between $4 million and $6 million to build the line, but adds that figure is much less than the $40 million he says it would cost UTA to build a light-rail transit line in the area.

"The financial side of this thing actually has just been recently started," White said. "For the last two years, I've been focusing mostly on the political and consensus-building."

The Sugar House Community Council has unanimously endorsed the trolley idea, he said.

The Wasatch Front Regional Council, which plans future transportation projects for Salt Lake County, has included a possible TRAX light-rail extension to Sugar House in its first phase of priorities on its 2030 plan. But that doesn't mean UTA definitely will build a TRAX extension into Sugar House.

"I'm not sure if it will actually have the ridership that some of the other (proposed) lines may have," UTA spokesman Justin Jones said.

Jones said UTA certainly would consider a request from White to use the Sugar House corridor, which UTA owns, for the nonprofit trolley service.

"We haven't seen a proposal, but as soon as we do we'd be happy to work with him," Jones said.

White said he already has made arrangements to acquire two trolley cars for use on the line.

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E-mail: zman@desnews.com