A confluence of transit needs

Transit needs along the Wasatch Front are coming to a critical head, but like several trains approaching the same spot at the same time, timing may be the most important factor for success.

Salt Lake County voters will decide this November whether to approve a massive property tax hike, totaling nearly $900 million, to jump-start work on new TRAX extensions to South Jordan, Draper, West Valley City and the Salt Lake International Airport. Now, Utah County voters finally will get the chance to approve a quarter-cent sales tax that would build a commuter rail line from Provo to the border of Salt Lake County.

But neither of those tax hikes, if approved, would help anyone get from Provo to Salt Lake City. That would take an additional tax hike in Salt Lake County — one that would build a commuter rail line from Salt Lake City to the Utah County border. The first phase of commuter rail, currently under construction, will extend only from Salt Lake City north to Pleasant View.

It's time for the Wasatch Front Regional Council to craft a plan that makes a seamless rail line from Brigham City to Provo a reality as quickly as possible, and certainly in time for I-15 reconstruction in Utah County. Oh, and by the way, it needs to do this in a way that impacts taxpayers the least.

That won't be easy. But then, neither the Salt Lake nor the Utah County ballot measures are sure things. The only sure thing is the need for reliable rapid transit. It would be a shame for costs and logistics to delay construction. It would be a double shame for Utah County to approve its end of the deal, only to have Salt Lake County be unable to extend track to the county line.

Each of these projects is important. Each would provide important transit alternatives that will help goods and services flow at a time when growth is putting relentless pressure on the roads and highways along the Wasatch Front. The business community understands this, which is why the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce lobbied so strongly for state lawmakers to allow an additional sales-tax hike to help deal with the costs.

The only group that seems not to understand the need is the Legislature, which has yet to even consider such a thing.

A sales tax hike is preferable to a property tax hike. But rapid transit costs money. It won't cost nearly as much, however, as inaction.