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SALT LAKE CITY — Taking TRAX to or from Salt Lake City International Airport? Be prepared for a slight snag in your ride.
Utah Transit Authority’s airport station, located adjacent to the airport’s first terminal, closed Friday as crews work to create a new station as a part of the airport’s recent expansion.
Instead, riders heading toward the airport will have to exit at UTA’s 1940 W. North Temple station. There, a shuttle will be available west of the station platform. The shuttle will take riders to the old airport terminals from Friday through Monday. It will take passengers to the airport's new terminal after that.
For people planning to take TRAX east toward the North Temple FrontRunner station and downtown Salt Lake City, the shuttle will be available at the ground level of the airport. Riders can take the shuttle to the 1940 W. North Temple station, where they can then board a green line train.
The shuttle’s hours will begin at 5:32 a.m. and run until 11:06 p.m. on weekdays, with 15-minute intervals before 7 p.m. and 30-minute intervals after 7 p.m. to align with the TRAX green line schedule.
The shuttle will run from 6:25 a.m. to 11:25 p.m. on Saturday and 6:25 a.m. to 8:56 p.m. on Sundays, with 30-minute intervals on weekends.
It will be the standard procedure for the next few months, as the new airport station, planned to be located outside the airport’s new terminal, is expected to be completed in July 2021. The old airport station opened in 2013.
The closure comes days before the new terminal, the first phase in a massive upgrade to the city’s airport, will open to new passengers for the first time. The new $4 billion terminal will open to ticketed passengers at 4 a.m. Tuesday with the first flight — #2020, Salt Lake City to Atlanta — departing at 6 a.m., according to Salt Lake City International Airport spokesperson Nancy Volmer.
The first incoming flight — #3540, Idaho Falls to Salt Lake City — is expected to arrive at the airport at 7:20 a.m. Both inaugural arriving and departing planes will receive water salutes on the runway.
The new airport station in 2021 may just be the beginning of TRAX/airport operations in the future. For example, UTA officials said in February they were exploring a new TRAX line that would go from the airport to the University of Utah, the Deseret News reported.
The agency suffered a setback in ridership since then due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It restored a large part of its TRAX frequency on Aug. 23, which officials said they believed would increase ridership. According to its website, light rail ridership was down 68% as of Aug. 24.
