Utah Transit Authority hosted its first Fun in Transit: Read & Ride event aboard a FrontRunner train, creating a dedicated reading space to drum up excitement for Salt Lake City's inaugural book festival. The activation, announced Thursday, tied directly to Bookish SLC and the upcoming Salt Lake Book Festival, giving commuters an early glimpse of the citywide celebration of books set to unfold later this month.
A Train Car Becomes a Literary Pop-Up
The event took place aboard a FrontRunner train car, according to Utah Transit Authority, with the agency saying it plans to offer more events and experiences for riders in the future. The timing was no accident: the activation was built to spotlight the first-ever Salt Lake Book Festival, a two-part affair kicking off with a rooftop gathering called The Prologue at the Salt Lake Public Library on October 16, followed by a full day of family activities at The Gateway on October 17.
Both venues sit inside UTA's downtown Free Fare Zone, a 40-year-old arrangement that lets riders hop on TRAX light rail and fixed-route buses at no charge as long as they board and exit within downtown boundaries, per the Utah Transit Authority. Riders whose trips begin and end within the zone can travel to the venues without paying a fare; trips that start or end outside it require proof of payment.
Jodi Picoult and Parvati Shallow Headline Opening Night
The Prologue kickoff on October 16 will feature bestselling author Jodi Picoult and television personality Parvati Shallow, alongside an adult spelling bee and a rooftop party open to anyone holding a $10 ticket, as reported by KSL-TV. The following day's main event at The Gateway is projected to draw 4,500 attendees and 25 visiting authors across multiple stages, with more than 50 local vendors and a custom festival craft beer produced by Fisher Brewing Company, according to SLUG Magazine.
Festival programming also includes academic contributions, with curators and librarians from the University of Utah Marriott Library's Rare Books Department hosting an interactive game-show panel titled “Perspectives over Pints: Is It a Book?” on the Kiln Stage, per @theU, the University of Utah's news outlet.
From Silent Reading Parties to a Citywide Festival
The festival traces its roots to Bookish SLC, a local organization that hosted silent reading parties and literary mixers in public spaces around the city. Amanda Warren, who founded Bookish SLC, is the festival director, according to KRCL. The festival is also officially partnered with Utah Humanities and the Utah Center for the Book, which has organized the statewide Utah Humanities Book Festival annually since 1998, KSL-TV notes.
Local cultural commentators and event organizers have framed the new festival as part of a strategic push to raise Salt Lake City's cultural profile, a conversation that has surfaced amid public discussions over the future venue location of the Sundance Film Festival, SLUG Magazine reported.
Part of a Broader Rider Engagement Push
The Read & Ride train car is the latest entry in UTA's ongoing Fun in Transit campaign, which has previously included a Valentine's Day “Love Train” on TRAX, a Halloween “Bus-tume Bash,” and a year-round Art Crawl, according to KSL.com. The campaign is part of UTA's effort to improve the rider experience.
That effort comes as UTA pursues major upgrades to the rail network itself. The FrontRunner commuter rail system runs across an 82-mile corridor with 16 stations connecting Weber, Davis, Salt Lake, and Utah counties, carrying over 14,000 weekday passengers and 3.7 million riders annually, Hoodline has previously reported. Federal transit regulators approved UTA and UDOT in August 2026 to move into the engineering phase for the $3.2 billion FrontRunner 2X expansion, which will double-track 26.1 miles of line and boost peak service frequency from every 30 minutes to every 15 minutes, according to Hoodline's earlier coverage of the project's regulatory milestones.
UTA is directing riders to rideuta.com/funintransit for details on upcoming events as it continues building out its rider experience programming alongside the infrastructure investments. For now, the Read & Ride event offers a small preview of what's coming to downtown Salt Lake City when the book festival opens later this month.
