When engineers at the Utah Transit Authority (UTA) began planning upgrades to the Delta substation — one of several substations powering Salt Lake City’s light-rail transit — they looked down the railway and discovered a major logistical challenge: The project was expected to cause extensive service shutdowns.
“We thought there was going to be a 2 to 3-week full shutdown to the entire downtown area,” says Dean Hansen, Manager of Systems Engineering at UTA.
For Hansen and his team this was not an acceptable forecast: “One of our primary goals is to limit our impact on operations,” he explains. “We really focus on keeping people moving.”
Keeping people moving is no easy task, especially if you’re replacing the entire internal infrastructure of a substation that powers Downtown Salt Lake City’s public transit. Everything from the DC switchgear, with its blinking multi-colored lightbulbs, to a pair of impressive 12,000-pound transformers were to be completely overhauled.
Beyond the interior, the thick, underground feeder cables that run parallel to the track and provide voltage to the rail were also nearing their expiration date.
But in a project that required system replacements both above and below ground, UTA managed to keep its trains — and its passengers — on track. By doing the majority of the work at night, the transit system depended upon by Utahns all along the Wasatch Front would stay in service for the entirety of the project.
This uncompromising dedication to “keeping people moving” is why UTA was recognized as the 2025 Outstanding Public Transportation System by the American Public Transportation Association this past June. Carrying the nation’s top honor in public transportation reflects more than just a commitment to moving people from one place to another —The agency is also pushing forward, innovating public transportation and partnering with Utah to power much of it with electricity.
Powering Movement with Electricity
Hal Johnson, the UTA Director of Innovative Mobility, is no stranger to mitigating challenges when it comes to electrified transportation. He has been working in the electrification space since 2018 and, under his leadership, the substation upgrades are just one piece of UTA’s long-term plan for electrifying multimodal transit.
“UTA is a multimodal agency,” he says, referring to its electric transportation services. “We operate light and speed rail, as well as streetcars and buses.”
UTA’s bus fleet now includes 34 battery-electric vehicles, 17 of which serve the Ogden Express Bus Rapid Transit Line (BRT). The remainder operate along key Salt Lake County routes, like 2, 209, and 509 — all supported by electric charging infrastructure. Two new BRT lines are also in the pipeline: the Midvalley Express (coming 2026) and the Davis–Salt Lake City Community Connector (coming 2028).
Road vehicles have hit the pavement in Tooele County, as UTA On Demand utilizes ten electric Ford E-Transit vans to move the public. “I’m really excited about our Tooele On-demand service, which operates like a Lyft or Uber for public transit,” Johnson says. Since moving on demand, UTA’s electric vans now carry 100s of people daily.
These innovations in public transit have expanded access and boosted ridership across Utah. By finding new, electrified ways to keep people moving, UTA continues to serve the state with greater reach and reliability — and they aren’t doing it alone.
Electrifying Utah, Together
And in partnership with the University of Utah, UTA has equipped many of its electric buses with air quality monitoring sensors, contributing to statewide research on vehicle emission’s impact on Utah air.
With each of these partnerships — across agencies, utilities, and universities — UTA isn’t just moving passengers; it’s moving toward the future hand in hand with Utah’s best and brightest. They’re innovating transportation technology and working together with the state to create the best electrified transit service in the Nation.
For Hal Johnson, that future begins with collaboration and planning, an important task that the Utah Electrification Initiative accomplishes together:
“I love planning because it’s really key in being able to define the future. Utah has done a great job with this. We’ve got a statewide transportation plan that identifies needed improvements in the state over the next 30 years.”
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