Salt Lake County leaders tour Midvalley rapid transit project. 

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• Benjamin Wood
• UTA executive director Jay Fox speaks about the Midvalley Express project during a bus tour on Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024.

MURRAY—A state senator, two mayors and the top leadership of the Utah Transit Authority boarded a bus on Wednesday for an up-close tour of the planned Midvalley Express BRT route, currently under construction between Murray, Taylorsville and West Valley City.

After welcoming the dignitaries, UTA executive director Jay Fox made a point to introduce the vehicle’s operator, Carlos, and noted his efforts to reassure the driver earlier that day.

“He was really nervous,” Fox said. “The worst thing that will happen is we’d have to hold a lot of new elections.”

The tour followed a reception at Murray Central Station formally acknowledging the start of construction on the Midvalley Express, or MVX, a bus rapid transit project that will be the only route of its kind in Salt Lake County after its completion in the fall of 2026. While Salt Lake County is currently unique for its light rail Trax network, the agency’s now-suspended MAX route on 3500 South had failed while corresponding BRT lines in Utah County and Weber County are flourishing.

BRT is something of a middle-ground between light rail and traditional buses, combining some of the benefits of "fixed-guideway" transit with the cost savings and utility of bus service.

"They are Trax on wheels," Taylorsville Republican Sen. Wayne Harper said of bus rapid transit services. "They’re more flexible, they’re less costly to build and to operate and they can handle the same number of people.”

• Utah Transit Authority
• Materials released by UTA show the reconfiguration of 4700 South with center-running bus rapid transit lanes.

For MVX, bus-only lanes will be constructed in the center of 4700 South (Highway 266), facilitating high-frequency, high-capacity connections between Murray Central Station and Salt Lake Community College, before the route turns north along Constitution Boulevard/2700 West to West Valley Central Station, the current terminus of the Trax green line.

This will also mean widening 4700 South from two lanes in each direction to three, which will make it more challenging to cross and could encourage higher driving speeds. But the project also includes the construction of a separated walking and cycling path on the north side of the road—which currently lacks even a sidewalk in that section of the right-of-way—and the addition of a robust transit service will likely contribute some degree of traffic calming.

An express route through those areas has been in some stage of planning since 2008, according to Harper. Construction is expected to cost roughly $100 million, with 65% of that funding provided by the federal government, according to UTA.

"This has had a long shelf life," Harper said. "The thing that I really love about this is it connects communities."

On the bus tour, Murray Mayor Brett Hales and Taylorsville Mayor Kristie Overson addressed the participants while traveling through their respective jurisdictions. Both noted key locations served by the express route and expressed their excitement for a new transportation alternative under development in their communities.

Overson remarked on the traffic congestion in Taylorsville and emphasized how much of that is due to drivers who don't live or work or the city, but who are using it to pass through to their destination.

“Somebody designed this beautiful 4700 South with so much room. It is so wide,” Overson said. “All we need [for MVX] is just a little bit of cement down the middle.”

Both mayors also revealed some of their assumptions about public transit and its ridership. Overson identified areas of opportunity for transit-oriented infill housing but also made a point to note the three mobile home parks located along the MVX route. And Hales began with an anecdote about Murray Central Station, remarking on how UTA's plans for the transit hub at one point called for minimal space for parking.

“You can imagine what kind of disaster that would be with only 40 spaces,” Hales said.

Murray Central Station is located next to the Intermountain Medical Center and its sprawling acres of asphalt surface parking. While the train platform does see a good number of park-and-ride patrons, it sees an even greater number of riders who pass through the space without the use of a car at all, making connections between bus, Trax and Frontrunner.

The area is made all the less hospitable by the presence of freight rail operations and its proximity to Interstate 15. Advocates for urbanist design and transit-oriented development patterns often hold Murray Central up as an egregious example of poor land-use decisionmaking.

“The reason that Murray City is so successful is because it is a cross section for transportation,” Hales said.

During the reception at Murray Central Station, UTA Chairman Carlton Christensen said that Utah County's BRT line, UVX, has the highest level of ridership among UTA bus routes, with 11 million riders over its 6 years in operation. He said services like MVX will be critical during the 2034 Olympic Winter Games, and referred to a state report that found every dollar invested in transit generates $5.11 in the local economy.

“We provide jobs," Christensen said. "We provide access to jobs, and we reduce the time drivers are in traffic and take cars off the road.”