UTA MOVES 2050

Continuing investments in transit are necessary to support our region’s rapid growth and expand access to schools, jobs, care centers, parks, and essential services for current and future residents.

Where and how we grow affects the transportation network. UTA is developing a Long Range Transit Plan for the next 30 years as a vision for the future of public transportation. This plan, UTA Moves 2050, focuses on understanding and responding to the needs of the community we serve today, tomorrow, and beyond.

Where do you spend the most time? Where is your work or school? Where do you call home? Where do you need to go? Our region is both cohesive and diverse, calling for unique transit solutions to best serve Utahns from Brigham City to Santaquin. These questions shape the service UTA provides.

To plan for the future, we look to how transit is serving us today to identify strengths and opportunities for our system. Today, UTA operates 82 bus and rail services, with much of our frequent service focused on areas with the highest population density and most jobs.

Our region is growing rapidly, which brings both challenges and opportunities. Where and how we grow affects the transportation network. UTA Moves 2050 works to address these impacts through visioning for the future. UTA is working to create a plan that best serves our region. The map below shows how our region will look in 2050 based on projections from the Wasatch Front Regional Council and Mountainland Association of Governments.

UTA Moves 2050 recommends a family of transit services suitable for different levels of transit demand and land use contexts. The diagram below provides an overview of each type of transit.

Transit services include:

• Innovative Mobility Zones, including on-demand service, for low-density areas, or when and where other types of services are not feasible.
• Five categories of bus service ranging from limited stop bus, local bus, and frequent bus to Enhanced Bus and Rapid Bus service that offer a combination of very frequent service and moderate to high levels of investment in speed and reliability improvements.
• The three forms of rail present in the UTA network today: FrontRunner regional commuter rail, TRAX light rail, and S-Line streetcar.

Over the summer of 2023, we conducted engagement both in person and virtually to gather feedback about our Draft Vision Network and develop our Final Vision Network. We appreciate all the feedback you provided!

The Plan Network prioritizes the most effective investments to both enhance existing service and advance key capital investments to support regional growth in the coming decades. The Plan Network is designed to be implemented in three phases, with the highest priority projects implemented in Phase 1.

The UTA Moves 2050 Plan Network is financially constrained. It is designed to provide more service, more choices, and an easy-to-use system over the next 30 years, within the resources UTA projects to be available.

The two regional transit plans (RTPs) from both MAG and WFRC provide a roadmap for which projects to prioritize based on operating and maintenance costs, projected ridership demand, and regional connectivity. The RTPs implement investments in three phases: Phase 1 (2023–2032), Phase 2 (2033–2042), and Phase 3 (2043–2050).

UTA Moves 2050 developed an evaluation process that was consistent with UTA’s Strategic Goals and assessed every potential service investment. This includes investments found in the RTPs as well as local service improvements not found in the RTPs.