ST. GEORGE, Utah — In the planning stages for nearly 15 years, the first public bus from St. George to Zion National Park departed Friday morning. Other than Sundays, it will operate for the foreseeable future.
Of all the people on one of the first busses out of St. George, Megan Sweidan had been on one of the longest journeys, going nonstop from Melbourne, Australia.
“ I've taken a bus from San Diego to Zion, like all through buses,” Sweidan said.” I think it's amazing in such a big country.”
It takes an hour and 25 minutes for the Suntrans bus to go from St. George to Zion and vice versa, with seven stops in between that include the Red Cliffs Mall, Hurricane and Virgin before arriving at the Zion shuttle stop in Springdale.
As a transit service, Suntrans pales compared to the Utah Transit Authority in Salt Lake City with the Zion line being the eighth bus route.
And the scheduled July opening was delayed four months when it took time to hire enough drivers.
Cameron Cutler, the public works director for St. George, said there are two specific groups that will be served by the bus.
“ Workers, employees that live either in Hurricane, St. George, Washington, Virgin that work in Springdale,” Cutler said. “Visitors, we get millions of visitors at Zion National Park every year.
And this is an option where they can stay in St. George, Washington, Hurricane, in hotels. They can take this bus and go to Zion National Park and not have to worry about a vehicle, not have to worry about parking at the park.
Barbara Bruno, Springdale’s mayor, had her husband drive her into St. George just so she could be on one of those first buses.
“We have a lot of traffic that goes through the town of Springdale and does not stop and patronize our businesses,” Bruno said. “They're going to Zion National Park. So any cars that we can get off the road that allow traffic flow more freely through our town is always a win.”
There are also people who live in St. George who don’t often go to the national park in their backyard. Especially driving there only to find no parking.
“You don't have to drive. Don't have to worry about those crazy people on the road,” said St. George resident Tanisha Lee..” No road rage allowed, OK? Yeah, just sit back and relax.”
The project was funded by a $15 million grant from the Utah Department of Transportation and a sales tax in Washington County. $9 million of that funded a new maintenance facility and five new buses.
It is just one of those projects that came together because people work together to make it right,” UDOT Commission Chair Naghi Zeenati said. “UDOT's goal is to make every community accessible to the transit system, make roads drivable, move people from corner to corner and connect all the communities. So to UDOT it's important to have all the communities connected.”
“You know savvy travelers travel smart, find the cheapest, most efficient route,” Sweidan said. “Not maybe most efficient, like even if it takes double the time if you're spending half the price.”
A disabled woman who at a spur of the moment decided to do something she's never been able to do because she can't drive on her own. Come out and see the beauty of this place.
Cutler said the future of the St. George to Zion shuttle will come down to how popular it is.
“We've estimated low and high in the 50,000 a year up to 300,000 a year. It just totally depends on how well it's used, how easy it is to jump on and off,” Cutler said. “The amount of routes that we have scheduled today are 10 routes a day, 10 round trips. If it gets used a lot more, we will add more.”
