SNOWBIRD, Utah — The Utah Department of Transportation has chosen an 8-mile-long gondola system as the way to serve the Snowbird and Alta ski resorts, ending a lengthy process that also included a cog railway among the options.
The Salt Lake Tribune reports UDOT made its final decision public on Wednesday, after releasing a preliminary plan in August 2022 that indicated the gondola was the preferred option to address longstanding congestion issues in Little Cottonwood Canyon. Traffic in the canyon can be a problem both in the winter to reach the ski areas and in the summer to access popular hiking areas.
The price to build the gondola is now estimated at $728 million, plus $4.4 million in annual operating costs. A bus system had also been considered; expanded bus service is planned while the gondola is built.
The gondola and cog railway were added to the options under consideration in 2020 [see “Digest: Utah considers cog railway …,” Trains News Wire, Nov. 23, 2020]. At that time, the gondola was estimated to cost $398.2 million to $477.8 million, compared to $987 million for the railway. By the time of last year’s preliminary decision, the cog railway was estimated to cost $1.06 billion, compared to $550 million for the condola and as little as $335 million for buses.
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