$489 million for Utah rail

FARMINGTON — Occasionally interrupted by the whistles of passing Union Pacific freight trains, U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta pledged almost a half-billion dollars Friday for the next stage of rail travel in Utah.

Mineta visited the construction site of the Farmington commuter-rail station, a spot that will one day be the nexus of I-15, U.S. 89 and the Legacy Parkway. There, he signed a full-funding grant agreement, a statement of the Bush administration's intention to spend $489 million over the next seven years to build the first phase of the Utah Transit Authority's FrontRunner commuter-rail line. That's more than 80 percent of the estimated $581 million cost of the project.

"This project couldn't come at a more critical time," Mineta said, citing projections that the population along the Wasatch Front will increase 62 percent in the next 20 years.

The grant agreement is for the first 44 miles of the commuter-rail line, from Salt Lake City to Pleasant View, Weber County. The line could ultimately run from Brigham City to Payson.

The agreement means the administration will ask for the money in upcoming budgets, although Congress must approve the funding before Utah sees it. While that is not a guarantee, UTA general manager John Inglish said Congress has never denied money budgeted under such an agreement.

In fact, the U.S. House has already approved the first installment of that money. The representatives voted Wednesday for a transportation spending bill that would send $80 million to UTA. The Senate still must approve that initial funding.

Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, attended the ceremony Friday and called FrontRunner "absolutely critical." He said that "future generations will look at this decision and say, 'These guys planned pretty well. They didn't just think of themselves. They planned for us.' "

Bennett added that transportation planning is vital in a state such as Utah, which despite its reputation of being largely rural is one of the nation's 10 most urbanized states, with the majority of its population squeezed along the Wasatch Front.

Mineta agreed that Utah is the right place for a project like this. "The people in Utah know congestion is not limited to Los Angeles," he said.

The secretary said Americans spend about $200 billion each year in added costs for goods, wasted fuel and squandered time because of traffic congestion. In the Salt Lake area, that cost is estimated to have been $257 million, including 15 million wasted hours, in 2003.