History of UTA - Salt Lake's Awesome Rail: Episode 6

Thanks to our patron Mike Christensen for supporting the show!

Links and stuffs

Timestamps

• 00:00 Intro
• 00:37 We sing the theme song a cappella
• 01:05 The OG Utah streetcars ^{[1] [3] [5]}
  • 01:05 1872: Brigham Young & the Salt Lake City Railroad Co.
  • 02:08 1889: Electrification! ^[2]
  • 02:44 Competition from the Rapid Transit Company
  • 03:22 1893: Over 73 miles of track ^[4]
  • 04:15 1901: Alfred W. McCune the traction magnate ^[6]
  • 04:55 Expansion, 1914: The Utah Light and Traction Company, over 38 MILLION paying passengers ^[7]
  • 05:41 The golden age of trolleys (> 140 mi. of track!), then the downfall
    • 06:13 Go watch How the Car Destroyed America: Episode 1 for the whole story
  • 06:50 1928: Trolleybus!
  • 08:12 Still doin' alright: 15 million riders a year (1935-1940)
  • 08:35 1939: Forced split of trolley & bus lines
  • 09:49 World War II, ridership drops, service cuts
  • 11:01 The failure of privately-owned transit in Salt Lake City
    • 11:22 If Trolley Cars Could Talk
• 11:38 Salt Lake City lines failed
• 12:11 1970: Utah Transit Authority was created
• 12:49 UTA's early start: old buses, $1.87 fare ^{[8] [9] [10]}
  • 13:40 Brief mention of The Case for Free Transit: Episode 4
  • 13:57 Booze money then sales tax money
  • 14:23 1974: Acquisition of some bus lines; the Golden Spike Express
  • 15:18 Mid-70s: 600,000 riders a year (rip)
  • 15:49 Late 70s: Ski bus service!
  • 16:04 1984: Utah County joins
  • 16:14 Free Fare zone (est. 1988)
• 16:29 TRAX & the age of expansion ^{[8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [15]}
  • 17:17 1999: Sandy/Salt Lake (now Blue) Line; very popular
  • 18:22 2001: University of Utah expansion
  • 18:55 2002 Winter Olympics ^[13]
  • 20:02 175 mile right-of-way acquisition; rail expansions
  • 21:25 FrontLines "2015"—many more rail expansions ^{[4] [14]}
  • 22:24 Stagnation & some service cuts (FrontLines was expensive)
  • 23:41 2019: UVX (Utah Valley Express)
• 24:29 The UTA of today ^[16]
• 25:15 Free Fare February dashboard (no, we never get back to talking about this)
• 25:25 The future!
• 25:25 Mountain View Corridor, should just build rail ^[17]
• 26:08 OGX (Ogden Express) ^[18]
• 26:32 Plans to restore pre-FrontLines bus service
• 27:07 The climate crisis ^[19]
• 28:34 Parking space licenses
• 29:57 Economic knobs & more transit
• 30:24 Outro (thanks Mike Christensen!)
  • 31:12 Patreon extras are up!
  • 31:29 List of sources
  • 31:50 Go Go Go UTA

References & notes

1. [1] From Mules to TRAX : A Brief History of Salt Lake City's Mass Transit
2. [2] The S Line is a 2-mile long light-rail-line-disguised-as-a-streetcar operated by UTA. We talk about this one a lot.
3. [3] If Trolley Cars Could Talk
4. [4] TRAX and FrontRunner system length: UTA: FrontLines 2015 homepage
5. [5] UtahRails.net: Mass Transit In The Salt Lake Valley: 1872 To 1960
6. [6] The Utah Light and Power company merged with Consolidated Railway and Power to create the Utah Light and Railway Company.
7. [7] UTA did 46.7 million rides with a service area of ~1.8 million: 2015 Annual Agency Profile
8. [8] Deseret News: Utah Transit Authority has long, winding road of history
9. [9] UTA: History
10. [10] Wikipedia: Utah Transit Authority § History
11. [11] Wikipedia: TRAX (light rail) § History
12. [12] UTA: 50 Years Forward: the Olympics Sparks Transit
13. [13] UTA Remembers the 2002 Winter Olympics
14. [14] Railway Technology: Utah Frontlines 2015
15. [15] Lessons Learned From the Utah Transit Authority System Expansion
16. [16] Utah Transit Authority Ridership Dashboard
17. [17] Some Mountain View Corridor transit plan info
18. [18] OGX info sheet
19. [19] It's 12% renewables (and 9% nuclear!). lol.