Bus and Rail Travel

Finding your way around Salt Lake City is easy, largely because the city is laid out on an orthogonal grid. However, the city blocks are longer than in many other cities, so distances can be deceiving. Salt Lake has a very workable public transportation system. A Free Fare Zone for travel by bus covers a roughly 36-square-block area downtown and on Capitol Hill. A light-rail system, called TRAX, moves passengers quickly around the city and to the suburbs south of Salt Lake. There are 27 stations, originating from Salt Lake Central Station, where you can connect to FrontRunner (inter-county light rail), Amtrak, and buses. The north-south light-rail route stops at many landmarks, including Gateway, EnergySolutions Arena, Gallivan Center, Spring Mobile Ballpark (home of the AAA baseball team), Fashion Place Mall, and Rio Tinto Stadium (home of Real Salt Lake soccer) in Sandy. Eleven stations have free park-and-ride lots. The east-west route begins at the University of Utah and ends at Central Station. One-way tickets are $2 and can be purchased on the platform through vending machines. Two children under five can ride free with a paying adult. For $5 you can buy an all-day ticket good for unlimited rides on buses and TRAX. For trips that begin on a bus, you must purchase the day pass at selected UTA Pass outlets. For trips beginning on TRAX, day passes must be purchased at a ticket vending machine.