SALT LAKE CITY — In a meeting Thursday night, UTA acknowledged it's been having trouble running routes.
“We are missing multiple trips every day at this point," said Manager of Service Planning for UTA. "In fact, the bus trip that I will be taking home from the office after this public hearing is canceled for tonight. I'll be waiting for the next one."
This all stems from staff shortages but should improve soon: UTA just approved a new union contract with raises for bus and rail operators and mechanics.
“As soon as we have a little bit more workforce, we feel confident that we can make some adjustments to our scheduling practices," said Callison.
Changes coming on August 20th include the TRAX running every 15 minutes, instead of every 30, on Saturdays, Front Runner schedule adjustments, so it will start being more on-time, as well as the start of a bus rapid transit in Ogden called OGX.
Multiple attendees brought up the ski bus issues during the meeting.
“I'm pretty sure everybody also knows we did run a reduced level of ski service during the ski season," said Callison.
Ski bus adjustments can’t happen until December, but Utahns should continue submitting comments to UTA for any and all things transit.
“The more we hear from people that they need more stuff, the more we can go to entities like the state legislature and the federal government and say, 'We need money for these projects that we have strong feedback from the community.'"
April 21 is the deadline to make comments on August Change Day.
