UTA notches big ridership gains in 2024 and more than 40 million total passengers. | News | Salt Lake City Weekly

UTA notches big ridership gains in 2024 and more than 40 million total passengers. 

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click to enlarge A row of electric UTA buses recharge at Salt Lake Central Station on December 20, 2024. - BENJAMIN WOOD
  • Benjamin Wood
  • A row of electric UTA buses recharge at Salt Lake Central Station on December 20, 2024.

DEPOT DISTRICT—The number of riders using Utah Transit Authority services increased by more than 15% in 2024, the agency announced Tuesday, topping 40 million total passengers and bringing the Wasatch Front within spitting distance of pre-COVID levels.

Buses remain the mode with the highest total ridership numbers—and largest geographical footprint—at more than 20 million passenger trips in 2024, an increase of roughly 10% over 2023. But UTA's light rail options—exclusive to Salt Lake County—saw even larger rates of growth, with Trax counts increasing by 26.5% (to 13.5 million total riders) and the S-Line Streetcar increasing by 24% (to 450,000 riders).

The FrontRunner regional train increased by 10.5%, to roughly 4 million riders, while UTA's On Demand microtransit—a rideshare option comparable to Lyft and Uber that is available only in a limited numbers of areas that otherwise lack transit access—jumped by 36.8% to more than 560,000 passengers.

"Last year was an incredibly successful year for us," said UTA executive director Jay Fox. "People are using transit not only to get to work but they're using it all day, they're using it on weekends and they're choosing it as an alternative, a lot, compared to using an automobile."

The figures translate to a more than 90% recovery (and 98.5% on buses) from the Coronavirus pandemic, which decimated the sales tax receipts that fund transit, disrupted commuting patterns nationwide and prompted broad staffing challenges. UTA's recovery level comfortably exceeds the average 79% recovery that the American Public Transit Association (APTA) estimated for the nation's public transportation agencies in April.

"This recovery indicates that transit agencies are having success in attracting non-commute trips," the APTA stated in its April brief. "Current data remains limited, but indicators in several metro regions point to transit recovery being led by trips to and from residential and commercial areas as opposed to office/work centers."

UTA's most recent five-year plan proposes an additional 9 million service miles across its jurisdiction, which includes the counties of Box Elder, Davis, Salt Lake, Tooele, Utah and Weber. The Summit County-based High Valley Transit also overlaps somewhat with UTA, with its zero-fare bus connection to Salt Lake City, but its ridership numbers and service miles do not count toward UTA's total.

While the bulk of those new service miles are planned in the form of traditional and express buses, UTA is also working to "strategically" double-track the Frontrunner train, which would allow for 15-minute frequencies during peak demand, to extend the S-Line Streetcar east to Highland Drive and to route new Trax lines through Salt Lake City. A new Trax station in South Jordan (serving the recently-relocated Bees baseball franchise) is slated to open this year, and work is advancing on proposed extensions of the Frontrunner train to Brigham City and Payson.

Salt Lake City recently completed its first bus-priority corridor on 200 South, facilitating more than 30 buses per hour, and has secured several high-frequency bus routes by contributIing funding to UTA above and beyond the standard sales tax percentages laid out in state law.

click to enlarge UTAH HOUSE MAJORITY CAUCUS
  • Utah House Majority Caucus

In its priorities for the upcoming state legislative session, the Utah House Majority Caucus highlighted the role of transit in alleviating congestion on the state's roadways. Citing UDOT projections, the House majority said that the double-tracking of Frontrunner (scheduled for completion in 2029) would make a train ride from Ogden to Provo 23 minutes faster than driving, and would eliminate 20 million miles of car trips each year.

"Personal vehicles take up the vast majority of space on our roads," the caucus materials stated. "By increasing transit capabilities and frequency, Utah can reduce traffic and create more space on our roads."

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About The Author

Benjamin Wood

Benjamin Wood

Bio:
Lifelong Utahn Benjamin Wood has worn the mantle of City Weekly's news editor since 2021. He studied journalism at Utah State University and previously wrote for The Salt Lake Tribune, the Deseret News and Entertainment Weekly

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