Current lines, from downtown to the University of Utah and to Sandy, are but a beginning, transit officials say.

The Draper extension would go seven miles south to Point of the Mountain, sweeping near big homes on the hillside. The airport line would travel along North Temple, ending near Terminal 1. The Mid-Jordan line would go through four cities, ending in the master-planned Daybreak development in South Jordan. The West Valley line would end at a proposed transit hub near Valley Fair Mall.

When built, those lines will put 70 percent of county residents within three miles of a TRAX station, said Mike Allegra, UTA's chief capital-development officer. Connections are planned from the bus lines and a commuter-rail system, the FrontRunner, which would run from Brigham City to Payson. Work on a 44-mile first segment of commuter rail, from Salt Lake City to Pleasant View, in Weber County, began last year and is scheduled to open in early 2008.

Putting a tax hike on the ballot, UTA says, will be a test of how serious people are about the benefits that might come from expanding light rail now, rather than in 25 years.

"You're going to get coverage, as well as frequent service and access," Allegra said.

A recent UTA poll by Dan Jones & Associates showed that only 40 percent of county voters would support a $95 annual property tax hike to expand TRAX. The poll had 424 responders and a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percent.

Support for expanding TRAX through a property-tax hike rose to 56 percent in another Dan Jones poll, when no specific amount for an increase was referenced. That poll, however, had only 245 respondents, and a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent.

Public transit systems, with maybe the exception of those in Beijing, never pay for themselves, according to Inglish. TRAX is funded through a combination of federal money, local sales-tax dollars and fares paid by riders. Fares cover 27 percent of the system's costs.

Many west-side residents and low-income advocates have little faith that expanding TRAX will enhance transit service. UTA officials admit that rail has an initial impact on bus riders. It steals riders from routes and creates a need to realign bus service to provide access to rail.

"Ultimately, though, you have a bus system that is strong because it is providing the connections to all the rail elements and doing it more efficiently than it could otherwise," Inglish said.

With recent cuts to bus service in parts of the Salt Lake Valley, however, residents wonder what they'll ride if TRAX doesn't go through their neighborhood. Cities in western Salt Lake County say they already suffer from a lack of available bus routes.