A simple, street-level continuation of the current Salt Lake City International Airport light-rail line would bring passengers a stone’s throw from a new terminal, at a quarter the cost of a longer, elevated track.
The savings to taxpayers are estimated to be more than $50 million. Airport officials say the service — after an interruption of at least six months — will be comparable. But after feeling excluded from the conversation, some City Council members are not yet convinced the city should deviate from its first-choice airport transit plan.
The biggest pro for this new street-level solution — which was, in fact, pulled from the scrapheap by airport engineers who had previously seen it ruled out — is that it would bring costs in line with those anticipated by the Utah Transit Authority when it signed a 2008 agreement to pay for the TRAX extension.