Utah Transit Authority has announced that ridership numbers show that more and more passengers are hopping onboard the S-Line streetcar each month. Ridership has gone up over the previous year for every single month the S-Line has been in operation. It is up an average of 36 percent overall since it first began operation. This spans a period from January of 2014 to the end of 2016 (the only full years of ridership data available). Ridership on the line was up 15 percent in 2016 and is up 8 percent for just the first four months of this year, compared to the same time period last year. Much of the increase in ridership is attributed to new development along the S-Line. Salt Lake City estimates that the S-Line will ultimately lead to more than 1,000 residential units and nearly 2 million square feet of redevelopment on seven sites (resulting in $405 million in private investment) in the Sugar House Business District. More than half of this new development activity is already complete. The Downtown South Salt Lake District anticipates 2,500 housing units, 1 million square feet of retail, 3 million square feet of office space in the next 25 years. Entitlements are completed for two residential projects and a grocery store as the anchor to new development. In 2016, the last full year of data available, the streetcar averaged 1,262 riders per day. If the steady increase in passengers continues, the S-Line streetcar will soon reach its projected ridership estimate that was submitted to the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) as required. In the Environmental Assessment of the S-Line presented to the (FTA) before the line was built, the streetcar line was projected to carry 2,000 riders per day by the year 2030.
