It's not yet up to the speed that Utah Transit Authority expects as a year-round average, but ridership is ahead of projections for a season when the University of Utah and other schools are out of session. Counters working for the agency on May 1 estimated 5,000 riders, compared to the 4,000 UTA had projected.

Ultimately the agency projects ridership will climb to 5,900 a day on average, but higher rates come November and December.

Riders "are getting used to it. They're seeing if it works with their schedule," UTA spokeswoman Carrie Bohnsack-Ware said. A 5,000 daily count is a strong start for this time of year, she said.

Historically UTA has underpromised on its opening-day ridership, a point that Salt Lake City Council members brought up this week during negotiations for a new TRAX station. UTA is resisting building a stop at 2200 West because the few thousand workers in a nearby industrial park aren't expected to buoy ridership enough to justify slowing down the ride to and from the airport, UTA Development Director Mike Allegra told the council on Tuesday.

Councilman Soren Simonsen questioned the ridership model that rules out a 2200 West stop, given that UTA undershot on its TRAX light-rail projections when the system opened in 1999 and again with FrontRunner.

Those projections are getting closer to reality, though, Allegra said, pointing out that UTA had no rail experience to draw on in 1999.

UTA has agreed to study development around the airport rail corridor for four years after TRAX opens there and build a station if ridership projections change significantly.