UTA announces plans to refurbish used rail cars with new maintenance facility

The Utah Transit Authority said today that Bombardier Transportation plans to open a rehabilitation facility in Utah to refurbish dozens of used rail cars for new TRAX lines and commuter rail to Provo.

The company plans to begin work at UTA's commuter-rail maintenance facility at 900 North and 500 West in Salt Lake City.

Bombardier Transportation is a division of aircraft and rail transportation manufacturer Bombardier Inc., which is based in Montreal, Canada. The transportation division has 29,100 employees worldwide and operates 42 production facilities, including three sites in the eastern United States.

UTA spokesman Justin Jones said the company would be refurbishing 29 used light-rail cars UTA acquired from San Jose, Calif., and 30 used commuter rail cars from New Jersey. The cars will be used on a commuter-rail line and four new TRAX lines in Salt Lake County that are scheduled to be built in the next seven to 10 years.

Jones declined to say how long the company would be in Utah, or how many jobs the facility would bring. A press release simply said that the company "will bring jobs to Utah."

"We don't know exactly what their intentions are, but we know how much work we have for them," Jones said. "I don't know how long it will take them to finish the job they have agreed to do."

Tomorrow at 11 a.m., UTA and Bombardier will hold a joint press conference with Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. to give details about Bombardier's move to Utah.

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E-mail: nwarburton@desnews.com