S Line

The S Line, or S-Line (formerly known as Sugar House Streetcar), is a public transit streetcar line in northeastern Salt Lake County, Utah, in the United States, that connects the business district of the Sugar House neighborhood of Salt Lake City with the neighboring city of South Salt Lake, as well as the Utah Transit Authority's (UTA) TRAX light rail system. It is a joint project between UTA, Salt Lake City, and South Salt Lake. It opened for service on December 8, 2013. It is operated by UTA and is UTA's first streetcar line. Description While fairly similar to UTA's TRAX light rail the S Line operates at a substantially slower speed, with a top speed of . The S Line also differs from TRAX in that, for the most part, it only has a single track (with passing tracks) and it operates with more frequent stops for easy pedestrian access. Other differences are that the S Line operates with a single vehicle, rather than a "train" of vehicle. Because of its slower speed, most S-line at-grade road crossings do not have barrier arms that stop vehicular traffic. Instead many streetcar crossings have traffic lights, while several are controlled by stop signs. Accordingly, the streetcars may be required to slow down or even stop prior to crossing roadways. (These road crossing also include crosswalks that parallel the tracks, and pedestrian traffic lights as well.) The fare for the S Line is the same as for TRAX and the same methods of payment (including the FAREPAY card) are accepted. The S Line utilizes the same Siemens S70 cars used by the TRAX Red and Green lines. The decision to use the same car model resulted in substantial savings as it allows UTA to use the same maintenance facilities used for TRAX. However, Mayor Becker suggested that as the S Line evolves (Phase 2 and beyond) the cars used could move "toward a more traditional streetcar design." The cars used for the S Line have a silver and white color scheme, as opposed the red, white, and blue color scheme used by the rest of UTA's vehicles (buses, TRAX trains, and the FrontRunner train). Since the S Line is intended for shorter trips than TRAX it has more standing room and space for bicycles. Each car has a capacity of 60 people. Daily ridership was anticipated to be initially about 2,000 by the year 2030. According to UTA, actual average weekday ridership stands at 1,335 per day. Most of the corridor for Phase 1 of the S Line includes a linear park.