Salt Lake County Council, mayors approve funding for transit

Within the next seven to 10 years, Salt Lake County residents should see a doubling of transit in the valley, with four new TRAX lines and commuter rail.

The Salt Lake County Council and county mayors today gave their OK to spending money, from a recently approved quarter-cent sales-tax hike, on the following projects:

• commuter rail in Salt Lake County;

• two new TRAX lines, Mid-Jordan and West Valley;

• and improvements to Interstate 80 from State Street to 1300 East.

Based on the council's and mayors' approval to spend the money on transit, Utah Transit Authority officials said today that they would be able to shuffle money already allocated to the Mid-Jordan and West Valley lines, to build two additional TRAX lines. A line to the Salt Lake City International Airport and the line to Draper will be built in the next seven to 10 years, UTA general manager John Inglish said this morning.

Salt Lake County voters in November approved the sales-tax hike, which will raise $2.5 billion for transportation projects over the next 30 years.

The Salt Lake County Council is scheduled to meet this Thursday to both approve the projects picked for funding today as well as possibly declare its intent to levy the tax.

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