TRAX station at Gateway may open by late 2007

The first of two light-rail stations near The Gateway project in downtown Salt Lake City is scheduled to be operating by the end of 2007, if all goes according to plans with the city and the Utah Transit Authority.

The two stations will bridge the end of the current line at South Temple and 400 West and the transit Intermodal Hub at 200 South and 600 West. UTA wants the first one operational before commuter rail between Salt Lake City and Pleasant View in Weber County starts running in 2008, but the agency doesn't have a target date for opening the second station.

The rush to open the first station, planned at 125 S. 400 West directly west of The Gateway, means that UTA and the city would have to sign necessary legal documents by the end of April and start construction by mid-July.

Before then, though, the city and UTA must decide who will pay for and design the connecting light-rail line and how to split construction costs. "There's definitely a lot still to do," said D.J. Baxter, an adviser to the mayor who works on transportation. "A lot of decisions remain."

The city estimates it will take between $30 million and $33 million to construct the 0.9-mile line and two stations. The city and UTA each plan to pay 28 percent of the cost, or about $8.5 million each. The remaining 44 percent of the money, around $13 million, is expected to come from federal sources.

During the anticipated 18-month construction, UTA will set the infrastructure for the second station — planned for 525 W. 200 South, but not fill in the "station furniture," or above-ground improvements that make the station look like a station. Leaving construction of the second station open-ended allows UTA and the city to base timing of that project on need, whether that need is a target number of daily riders or increased housing and business development along the line extension.

"It's a compromise that we have two stations," UTA spokesman Justin Jones said. "To build a station that no one will use, at least in the short term, doesn't make sense, especially when we're using limited taxpayer funding."

Putting one station every other block fits with downtown TRAX stops already and "represents Salt Lake City's best (and, perhaps, only) opportunity for new medium- and high-density residential and mixed-use development," Baxter wrote in a report to the City Council.

With a station planned for 125 S. 400 West, The Boyer Co. wants to maintain access to its parking garage; if the city and UTA decide to do so, they would ax on-street parking near the Dakota Lofts and narrow the sidewalk, according to Baxter's report.

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