Utah Transit Authority - History

History

Bus ridership in the entire system
1997 67,400
1998 68,100 1.04%
1999 65,100 –4.41%
2000 79,800 22.58%
2002 77,100 –3.38%
2003 79,700 3.37%
2004 81,700 2.51%
2005 82,200 0.61%
2007 77,500 –5.72%
2008 83,400 7.61%
2010 82,900 –0.60%
2011 88,700 7.00%
2012 83,000 –6.43%
See also: List of Utah Transit Authority bus routes

The Utah Transit Authority traces its roots to 1953 when several bus companies united to form the organization. Ironically, among the constitutive companies of the UTA was National City Lines, which bought out and decommissioned the trolleys from the Utah Light and Traction Company in the 1940s. The Traction company operated electric trolleys in Salt Lake City neighborhoods like the Avenues.

Bus service in the 1950s became unpopular with low gas prices and subsidized construction of highways like Interstate 15. By 1960 bus ridership was only about one third the level of war-time Salt Lake, and the average age of riders was 14.

In 1969, the Utah State Legislature passed the Utah Public Transit District Act, which allows individual communities to address transportation needs by forming local transit districts. The UTA was subsequently founded in March 1970 when the cities of Sandy, Salt Lake City, and Murray voted to form a transit district. Service was extended to Weber and Davis counties in 1973 and to Utah County in 1985. Today, the UTA's service area is over 1,400 square miles (3,600 km2) and covers seven counties: Box Elder, Davis, Salt Lake, Summit, Tooele, Utah, and Weber.

The UTA saw rapid expansion through the mid-1970s and 1980s. It strove to streamline the bus system and only in the 1970s connected the east and west sides of the Salt Lake Valley, with east–west routes along 2100 South, 3300 South/3500 South, and 4500 South/4700 South created in 1975. Four bus routes to Granger, Hunter (which today comprise West Valley City), Kearns, Magna, and Tooele were also created the same year. Sunday service on twenty-five routes began in 1975, only to be removed sometime before 1988. (Sunday service resumed in 2001.) In 1976 the UTA began offering ski service to Alta, Brighton, Snowbird, and Solitude ski resorts in Big and Little Cottonwood canyons. Today, the UTA offers seasonal buses to those four resorts and Sundance in Utah County.

Since 1970, the entire service area of the UTA has seen bus route redesigns, beginning with Utah County in 2000. Weber and Davis Counties saw an overhaul of their bus routing in 2002. The largest and most comprehensive change in routing occurred in August 2007 in Salt Lake County, with the goal of increasing ridership by twelve percent. Prior to 2007, night service had different numbering and routing than regular daytime service. After the redesign, nighttime routes were to retain the same routing and numbering as their daytime counterparts. Routes were consolidated as well, with sixty-nine routes being reduced to sixty. Fifteen-minute service during weekday daytime hours was extended from two to eleven routes, and all other routes in the system had thirty-minute service during weekday peak hours at the very least. "Fast buses," which connected suburbs to the city and charged the same fare as local buses (as opposed to express buses, which required a higher fare), were also introduced and expanded. The redesign proposal was met with criticism, with low-income advocacy groups claiming that the redesign focused too heavily on commuters rather than the disadvantaged. The route redesign achieved its intended goal—from 2007 to 2011, bus ridership in the entire system increased from 77,500 to 88,700, an increase of eighteen percent.

Beginning in 2010, a decline in funding that the UTA was receiving from sales tax revenues resulted in service reductions. Fast bus trips were substantially reduced, with many fast bus routes being cut altogether. Saturday and night service saw cuts as well. The opening of two new TRAX extensions exacerbated bus route service cuts, especially in the western side of the valley; routes that previously traveled from the western suburbs to downtown would end at Green Line stations, with riders expected to complete the rest of their journeys via the Green Line. Also, there was no service on Memorial and Labor days for the first time in 2010. However, as the UTA's rail expansion projects draw to a close and revenues increase, the agency has indicated that it will slowly begin restoring service in the near future.

Amidst the service cuts and rail expansions, the UTA struck a deal with Park City and Summit County to begin operating an express bus between Salt Lake City and Park City in October 2011. This express service is called PC-SLC Connect.

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