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Summarized by Rosemary Pollock
LDS May Rent TRAX for Conference
Salt Lake Tribune 23Mar00 D1
By Brandon Loomis: Salt Lake Tribune
and
Rent-a-TRAX Planned for Sundays; Rule may kick in prior to LDS conference
Salt Lake Tribune 18Mar00 D1
By Brandon Loomis: Salt Lake Tribune
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH -- The LDS Church has been approved by the Utah
Transit Authority to rent Salt Lake City's light rail system for
General Conference on Sunday, April 2nd, when the system is normally
closed. While the Church hasn't yet said that it will rent the
system, approval has been granted and the system is available. The
approval comes as the Church plans to use its new Conference Center
for the meetings, accommodating more than 20,000 people, three times
the number that could be accomodated at previous sessions of General
Conference.
Utah Transit Authority drafted and approved a rule that would allow
community groups to rent TRAX light rail on Sundays or after regular
business hours. In consideration of the LDS Church's general
conference in April, the ruling will allow access for all "in the
interest of the authority and the community." The conditions of the
ruling would require that any group requesting extra service would
have to pay for the operation and staffing which is estimated at
$30,000 a day. The trains would keep their regular schedules and
stop at every station.
"It's very common, but we don't have the funding to extend service
now," said UTA spokesman Kris McBride on Friday. In the past, the
agency has extended bus service for events such as the NCAA
basketball tournament.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints requested the UTA to
consider running TRAX to help alleviate traffic in downtown Salt Lake
City on April 2, the second day of its annual conference. This
conference will mark the opening of the new 20,000-seat Conference
Center north of Temple Square.
The request has caused some concern among churchgoers and recent
letters to the editor at the Salt Lake Tribune. With the church
discouraging work on Sundays, why would it ask for the trains to run?
One LDS Church member, Margaret Heighton of South Jordan said, "If
they pay for it, yeah." "I don't want it to come out of my pocket
as a taxpayer, but it's going to come out of my pocket as a tithing
payer." Heighton rode the trains in England and said, "If Sunday
buses wouldn't have been available, I wouldn't have been able to go
to church." "There are people who need the service on Sunday."
Church spokesman Michael Purdy said LDS officials have not yet
decided what to do and are waiting for the UTA board to give them
more information. "We had discussions with them earlier, but no
decisions have been made," Purdy said. "The church has not taken a
position supporting or discouraging transit on Sundays," he said.
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