UTA OKs downtown Ogden trolley service for another year
-
- Ogden Trolley driver Cory Davis, parked outside the Utah Transit Authority FrontRunner station, prepares to make a circuit on the downtown Ogden route on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2022. The UTA service is free, meant to spur downtown activity.
-
- An Ogden Trolley bus heads out from the Utah Transit Authority FrontRunner station to make a circuit on the downtown Ogden route on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2022. The UTA service is free, meant to spur downtown activity.
-
- Ogden Trolley driver Cory Davis, parked outside the Utah Transit Authority FrontRunner station, prepares to make a circuit on the downtown Ogden route on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2022. The UTA service is free, meant to spur downtown activity.
SALT LAKE CITY — The free trolleys that traverse downtown Ogden aiming to encourage activity at businesses in the zone have another year of life.
The Utah Transit Authority board of trustees on Wednesday approved a fare agreement with Ogden to keep the trolley operating through 2023, which will be its fourth full year of operation. As with previous years, Ogden will cover 25% of the overall operating cost of $289,400 for the service, or $72,350.
“We look at it as a way to get around to different downtown amenities without having to have a car,” said Mark Johnson, chief administrative officer for Ogden. “We still think they have value.”
At times, the red trolleys plying UTA Route 601 between Ogden’s FrontRunner station and the downtown area, which launched in late 2019, can appear void of people. But Johnson nevertheless holds out hope, noting their use during activities that draw big crowds to the city center, like the annual Ogden Twilight concert series at the Ogden Amphitheater.
“We’re still optimistic it’s good,” he said. He hopes the UTA bus rapid transit system taking shape and to be completed next year serves as a spur to trolley use by making it easier to get to the city center. The BRT system will link the FrontRunner station with Weber State University and McKay-Dee Hospital via electric buses.
In November, the Ogden Trolley drew an average of 103 riders per weekday and 115 on Saturdays, according to UTA figures. In November 2019, it drew an average of 111 per weekday and 130 on Saturdays.
The UTA board of trustees also approved an agreement with the City of Layton to continue the Midtown Trolley service, Route 628, which is also free for riders and connects the FrontRunner stations in Clearfield and Layton. The city will pay a quarter of the overall price tag of $737,648 or $184,412.
Likewise, UTA officials approved an agreement with Farmington to continue the Lagoon/Station Park Shuttle, also free for riders, for 2023. Route 667, as it’s known, follows a loop linking the FrontRunner stop at Farmington Station, Lagoon Amusement Park and the University of Utah Health Farmington Health Center. At certain hours, the loop extends to Main Street in Farmington.
The total cost of the Farmington shuttle is $320,668 and Farmington will cover 25% of that, $80,167.
Shuttle service in each location, UTA says, “is a valuable economic development tool.”
