More people took to the rails during the week of September 20 than at any time in the agency’s history. Preliminary numbers show that UTA recorded a total of 567,892 boardings from Sunday, Sept. 20 through Saturday, Sept. 26, an all-time record.

Several community events contributed to ridership, including Salt Lake Comic Con, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Extreme and the LDS Women’s Conference. To accommodate heavy crowds, UTA added extra cars on TRAX trains and increased the frequency of its service. Some TRAX lines ran four-car trains instead of the usual two or three-car trains, and frequency was increased to every five or 10 minutes instead of 15.

The record-setting week follows a trend of increased ridership as the public takes advantage of enhanced service and new fare promotions. Overall ridership for June, July and August increased over the same time period in 2014, with more than 11.2 million rail and bus boardings this summer alone. Schedule change days in April and August brought increased bus frequency and more weekend service on select bus routes, extended Sunday hours on TRAX and added service seven days a week on the S-Line. In July, UTA announced two new fare promotions; up to 20 percent off TRAX and FrontRunner and 40 percent off bus fare when riders pay with FAREPAY, and a reduced-price Group Pass that allows up to four people to ride trains and buses for just $10.