UTA and UDOT prepared for a busy weekend downtown

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Transit Authority is confident it’s ready for a very busy weekend ahead in Salt Lake City.

There’s a surge of people expected to be downtown on Oct. 5 and 6 for General Conference, an Ultimate Fighting Championship fight and a trade show.

UTA Senior Spokesperson Gavin Gustafson said the transit’s blue line will get people around the city over the busy weekend.

“If you’re coming from further outside of Salt Lake Valley, you can take the Frontrunner to the Salt Lake Central Station and then jump on the blue line from there,” Gustafson said. “Obviously, bus lines connect to the blue line throughout the city.”

The Frontrunner won’t be available to ride on Sunday due to UTA using Sunday’s to maintain Frontrunner rails. However, Gustafson said TRAX will still be available to riders.

Free UTA rides for ticket holders

Gustafson said if you’re riding transit on your way to the General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, your ticket to conference is also your ticket to a free ride on any UTA buses or trains.

If you’re going to Salt Lake City for other events this weekend, you can ride for free in the downtown area in free fare zone areas.

“The free fare zone is part of the blue, green and red line,” Gustafson said. “From Salt Lake Central Station, which is approximately 600 West, through downtown, past the Gateway, past the Arena Station, Temple Square Station, City Center, down Main Street, until 500 South [and] the Courtyard Station.”

For the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the Conference Center is expected to be at full capacity. Gustafson said UTA is ready for the crowds.

“We don’t have a specific event service planned for the weekend, which I would say speaks to the strength of our standard setup,” Gustafson said. “But we do always have additional vehicles ready to be added if needed.”

Other preparations

John Gleason with the Utah Department of Transportation said UDOT is also prepared for the weekend.

“These are special occasions and any kind of concert or big convention that we have, whether it’s in Salt Lake, West Valley, down at the Stadium of Fire, any big event like that, we staff our traffic operations center with traffic engineers that are monitoring the area.”

Gleason also said those traffic engineers monitor the streets live. He said if there’s anything slowing traffic, like a crash, law enforcement is brought in to tend to the area.

“Being able to adjust signal times, it’s a big time saver for people,” Gleason said. “It allows people to get into an event, or a conference in this case, with much more ease and convenience than if we just left the signals at a normal rate.”