PLEASANT VIEW — The FrontRunner station at Pleasant View looks about as ready to receive passengers as any other station along the line.

But “Station Closed” signs flanking the entrances serve as a reminder to potential commuters that this station hasn’t seen a FrontRunner train since 2018, and it will likely be a long time before it does — even with aspirations to extend the service north of its current Ogden terminus to Brigham City.

Last week, with the announcement of Salt Lake City’s official selection as host of the 2034 Winter Olympics, the Utah Transit Authority (UTA) sent out a press release detailing improvement projects that will support the Games, including “FrontRunner improvements to open up 15-minute and Sunday service.” No mention is made of the northward extension.

In the recently published UTA Moves 2050, a southern expansion of FrontRunner from Provo to Payson is shown while northward expansion is simply a highlighted mark denoting “corridor preservation.”

However, Beth Holbrook, UTA board of trustees member, told the Standard-Examiner that this northward expansion hasn’t been forgotten about.

“We have purchased about 23 acres at BDO (Business Depot Ogden) just north of our current Ogden station with the intent to do a station stop as well as a TOD (transit-oriented development),” she said. “Then we have our Pleasant View station that already is in existence. What we’re doing right now is we’re coordinating with Union Pacific… to purchase corridor within their right-of-way. That is roughly in the $15 million range, so we’re trying to figure out how we can leverage some corridor funding to start purchasing some of that.”

She said UTA has purchased around 60% of the corridor necessary between Ogden and Brigham City, with some of it being in private hands at the moment.

“We’re working on getting that completed,” she said. “I don’t necessarily have an exact timeline, but the goal is to get it done by the 2030 range.”

As for constructing the line itself, Holbrook thinks it could be 2050 or sometime later before the FrontRunner reaches Brigham City.

“That 2050-2060 range is where we’re focused on getting service to Brigham City,” she said.

Closer on the radar is double-tracking more of the network in order to help facilitate 15-minute and Sunday service.

Holbrook said this plan has seen some important boosts in the last year or two.

“The legislature has put about $370 million into the strategic double-tracking (project),” she said. “We are on the federal budget for two years in a row, roughly about $500 million on the federal side, in order for us to complete this project. Simultaneous to all of this funding, we are working through environmental and engineering. We’re 90%-ish done in that capacity. We still have to purchase some right-of-way.”

Eight sections of the line between Ogden and Provo will be double-tracked, bringing the system from 26% double-tracked to 49% double-tracked. This project is expected to be completed in 2030.

For more information, visit https://www.rideuta.com/Current-Projects/Long-Range-Transit-Plan.