City Creek is packing TRAX trains | The Salt Lake Tribune

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The opening of City Creek Center in downtown Salt Lake City is packing TRAX trains — even doubling normal ridership on one day last week, according to the Utah Transit Authority.

Last Saturday, preliminary figures show that TRAX had 65,451 boardings — nearly double the average 34,206 boardings for Saturdays in March, said UTA spokesman Gerry Carpenter.

A boarding is one person stepping onto a train. So people making a round trip would have at least two boardings — or more if they transfer trains.

On Thursday and Friday as City Creek opened, TRAX boardings were about 30 percent above normal — or 15,000 extra boardings a day above the typical 51,000 or so for those weekdays in March. An estimated 50,000 shoppers visited the new center each day.

"Many people chose TRAX as their preferred method of transportation into downtown with nearly 61,000 more boardings than average over the first three days of the center's opening," said UTA General Manager Michael Allegra. "We are proud to be a partner in these new types of walkable developments and ensure a better quality of life for generations to come."

UTA is promoting many "transit-oriented developments" of mixed-use, high-density residential and commercial projects around transit stops, saying it could help double ridership in coming years.