The Utah Transit Authority has killed an idea to create a transit mall on 100 South between Main and West Temple but says it will study future downtown transit options — including the need for a street-car system that could run on a future TRAX light-rail loop downtown.
The transit mall plan would've created a major bus stop on the road and might have ended all automobile traffic there, causing concerns for nearby businesses.
But UTA has now abandoned that plan and will only propose to change one bus route downtown — a line that loops from downtown to the State Capitol building — as part of its massive route reconfiguration, which will be implemented in August 2005, spokesman Justin Jones said.
Instead of making many changes now, UTA will launch a new downtown transit study, including an examination of a street car plan that could run on a future TRAX light-rail loop.
Such a loop would connect TRAX lines from the yet-to-be-built Intermodal Hub, on 600 West near 300 South to TRAX's existing main line, maybe at 400 South and Main.
The study will cost upwards of $250,000, with Salt Lake City slated to kick in $80,000 toward the project. UTA hopes to raise the rest from downtown stakeholders, including the businesses community.
"It will be a comprehensive downtown plan that will look at transportation as a whole, with a specific emphasis on transit," Alice Steiner, UTA's development consultant who is heading up the project.
With all the new projects planned for downtown — including the LDS Church's massive redevelopment project and Hamilton Partners planned sky-rise office building between 200 and 300 South on Main — Steiner said UTA figured it was time to reevaluate downtown transportation models.
Salt Lake City Transportation director Tim Harpst said with all the new light-rail cars UTA plans on using downtown could be flooded with trains. Therefore, the study will also look at where new transit lines downtown could go.
The study will include looking at the location of a potential light-rail line loop that could be use for street cars to shuttle people around downtown, said D.J. Baxter, senior adviser to Mayor Rocky Anderson.
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