DAYBREAK—The Trax Red Line began service at a new station on Wednesday, with the Utah Transit Authority launching the recently-completed South Jordan Downtown Station at what is set to become an urban retail and entertainment hub for the southwest corner of Salt Lake County.

Wednesday's launch was backdropped against ongoing construction at a new ballpark for the Salt Lake Bees, located steps away from the Trax platform at approximately 11000 S. Grandville Avenue. The team is scheduled to begin its inaugural season in Daybreak next month—after vacating its longtime home at Smith's Ballpark in Salt Lake City—and work crews were busy as dignitaries and Bumble, the Bees mascot, arrived on a Trax train to formally launch the new station.

South Jordan Mayor Dawn Ramsey said that while a station had long been planned for the site, it wasn't expected to be constructed for another 10 years. But the success of Daybreak and growth in the surrounding area had pushed proponents to accelerate the timeline.

"This is more than just a transit stop," Ramsey said. "This is a symbol of progress, economic growth and our commitment to creating a connected and thriving community."

Ramsey cited internal UTA estimates that show roughly $5 in local benefit for every $1 invested in public transit. She said the new Trax station is a "game-changer" that will allow residents and visitors alike to get around without the use of a private vehicle, helping families to save money while also supporting small businesses, relieving traffic congestion and avoiding air pollution.

"We’re going to cut a lot of ribbons," Ramsey said. "There’s a lot of new development happening and it’s helping south Jordan."

UTA chairman Carlton Christensen remarked that the new station is just "a baseball throw" away from the new Bees ballpark, offering the most convenient way for fans to access the venue. And he noted the upward trend in the transit agency's ridership numbers, including more than 40 million total passengers in 2024.

He said that he was a newly-elected city councilman in 1999 when the first Trax service began in Salt Lake City, and that everything built since then is the result of collaboration and partnership between city, county, regional and state stakeholders.

"I'm always amazed how far transit has come," Christensen said. "Last December we celebrated 25 years of light rail in the state of Utah."

The Bees' season opener is scheduled for April 8 and a handful of tenants—including SLC favorites Nomad and Hires Big H—are scheduled to open in the adjacent retail spaces this year. The Larry H. Miller group, which owns the Bees and much of the overall Daybreak development, is also building a Megaplex theater directly abutting the ballpark and Trax station and plans to bring a summer concert series and other programming to a pedestrianized plaza that serves as the gateway to the new downtown cluster.

Steve Starks, a Daybreak resident and CEO of the Larry H. Miller Group, said that he had only recently seen the ballpark lights lit for the first time, and he compared the experience to the movie Field of Dreams and the apocryphal line of dialogue: "If you build it, they will come."

"We’re all fortunate to live in a place with incredible momentum as a state," he said.