Tom Warne Report, 4 November 2011
President Barack Obama made a new request to Congress this week to approve transportation funding to create more jobs, and the White House subsequently issued a report citing Utah’s new TRAX light rail lines as examples of how more funding could achieve this goal. The report noted that the Mid-Jordan TRAX line is receiving 80 percent of its funding from the federal government.
The report called the new 10.6-mile Mid-Jordan line, which opened in August along with the new West Valley City line, “the latest completed project in Utah’s ambitious plan to develop a world-class public transportation backbone by 2015.” Also mentioned was the Utah Transit Authority’s current construction of TRAX lines to the Salt Lake City International Airport and to Draper, and extending the FrontRunner commuter rail from Salt Lake City to Provo.
“The state is on track to complete 70 miles of transit line in less than seven years,” the report said. “Utah’s most extensive transit network significantly improves access to jobs for many area residents, improves air quality and reduces highway congestion.”
In a speech Tuesday, Obama urged members of Congress to pass the transportation portion of the American Jobs Act, which he said would make an immediate investment of $50 billion in transportation projects and aid job creation. “This week, Congress has the chance to do something … that will put hundreds of thousands of construction workers back to work rebuilding our roads, bridges, airports and transit systems.”