Utah County residents were left behind in 2000, when counties to the north endorsed a sales-tax hike to build the FrontRunner line that now runs from Ogden to Salt Lake City. But, in 2006, Utah County voters approved their own quarter-cent tax to extend the rails 44 miles south to Provo.
And Tuesday, a groundbreaking ceremony at the future site of a station near Lehi's Thanksgiving Point kicks off work on that route.
FrontRunner South is expected to open in late 2011 or 2012 and see roughly 8,000 rides a day. By 2030, the Utah Transit Authority projects, the Provo line - with stops in the Salt Lake Valley as well as northern Utah County - will provide 12,000 daily passenger boardings.
"We've waited a long time to get this in place," Provo-Orem Chamber of Commerce President Steve Densley said Monday. The chamber worked with its counterparts in Salt Lake County to get the funding, he added, and appreciates the help.
"Chambers are not notorious for voting for tax increases," Densley said, "but we felt it was enormously important to have an alternate route."
Just how important will become apparent next year when the Utah Department of Transportation starts rebuilding Interstate 15 through Utah County, he said. The freeway is the only major link between Utah's two most populous counties, which share an increasing number of workers as the adjacent portions of the counties lead the state in growth.
The tax may seem onerous in tough economic times, Densley said, "but it is to the benefit of the economic development of each county in the future."
That feeling is mutual in Salt Lake City, where the Downtown Alliance has relished the capital's burgeoning status as a regional transit hub where new light rail and commuter lines link on the western edge of downtown.
This latest connection, to Provo, will offer a convenient, noncar choice to the 20,000 or more Utah County residents who the Wasatch Front Regional Council says commute to work in Salt Lake County daily, said Downtown Alliance economic-development director Carla Wiese.
"Whenever we can get people out of their cars and into public transit, it makes it easier to get into downtown," Wiese said. "We hope that it will ease parking and make it easier for people who want to come shop at the Gateway or go to downtown events."
The rail line will cost $954 million and be built by Commuter Rail Constructors, a joint venture of the Herzog Cos. and Stacey and Witbeck Inc.
The 1 p.m. groundbreaking at 3100 N. Garden Drive in Lehi will include appearances by Federal Transit Administration chief James Simpson and state leaders, including Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert, a former Utah County commissioner.
Workers in Provo and from Bluffdale to Lehi are establishing access to UTA's rail right of way and removing old track, spokeswoman Carrie Bohnsack-Ware said. In Provo, they also are improving drainage along the Tanner Race Canal at 900 W. 500 South.
