Streetcar Line Gets Massive Boost from DOT

10.20.2010 by Jeff Robinson

(KCPW News) Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker is celebrating a $26 million federal stimulus grant just awarded for the proposed Sugar House streetcar line from the Department of Transportation. It’s the last piece of funding needed to make the project a reality. Becker says it will provide a neighborhood friendly transportation option.

“People know where they are, they know they can always walk out to the streetcar line and it’s going to carry them where they want to go if they’re anywhere between Sugar House and the TRAX line at 21st South,” said Becker. “So it provides another option, it should help relieve congestion, it certainly will help improve air quality.”

The mayor adds that it will transform how the surrounding area is developed.

The streetcar line will start at the 2100 South TRAX stop and extend eastward for two miles, on a corridor between 21st South and I-80. And Salt Lake City Councilman Soren Simonsen, who represents Sugar House, hopes it will go farther at some point.

“Where do we go from here?” said Simonsen. “We could potentially tie this line into Holladay, we could tie it in further east into Foothill Boulevard and connect to other transit systems, we could go north and tie into Westminster College and the University of Utah, or all of those, and those are some of the possibilities that we’ll be focusing on.”

The Utah Transit Authority has already acquired the rights-of-way for the project and anticipates it will be completed by the end of 2013. Altogether, the streetcar line will cost about $55 million. The rest of the funding comes from UTA, Salt Lake City, and South Salt Lake.