According to statements made on Twitter by the University of Utah, Commuter Services and UTA, red line Trax services between 900 E. and University Medical Center have been halted, cutting off Trax access to all of campus since about 9:45 a.m. this morning.
A bus bridge is in place, utilizing UTA buses, UTA van shuttles and university shuttle buses — which are not owned or operated by UTA — to transport Trax riders from 900 E. and 400 S. to campus.
The north entrance to the stadium parking lot is also closed to both cars and pedestrians.
There are reports that a car hit the barriers between the Trax trains’ route and the parking lot, causing one of the barrier arms to hit the overhead wires which supply electricity to the light rail trains.
According to UTA’s tweets, there was also a “brief fire” at a substation.
UTA says repair crews on scene now.
It’s unclear if the Lightspark Media Summit, which takes place today from 7:30 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. at Rice-Eccles Stadium, has been affected.
While UTA says in a tweet they don’t know when services will be restored, the U tweeted that “Campus TRAX stops are expected to be out of service until late tonight,” and that users should expect delays.
According to Commuter Services, a solution to transport fans to tonight’s gymnastics meet has not yet been found.
UPDATE: UTA has tweeted that “Until we have a better idea of when the repairs will be complete, we are recommending alternate transportation to [the gymnastics meet].”
Note: Updates will be added to this story as more details are made public.
@EliseAbril
