Reader comments
UTA to add 25¢ surcharge

"...the fuel surcharge could limit accessibility for low-income individuals and the disabled because they are often living on fixed incomes and could be priced out of public transportation."

Whatever it may have originally been intended to do, the UTA is not running in such a way as to benefit the poor, the elderly, the disabled or the working class.

I live and work near 5600 West and multiple buses run past my house, yet there is no route that can get me to and from work. Fellow employees often walk or ride bicycles because the UTA is not interested in serving them.

I used the UTA website to plan trip from my home to my parents' home due east in Cottonwood Heights. It would have taken 4.5 5o 6 hours to arrive. I could walk there faster.

The UTA is all about running their toy railroads and reducing the need for parking at the U.

If you work odd shifts, don't want to go downtown or just need to get around the south and west sides of the valley then all the UTA has to say to you is: Take A Hike!

Oil prices don't care if your well off or not. Everybody is taking a hit here. There are those who would complain and take us to socialism.

Of course UTA is not for the poor. Does the money come from the poor? UTA can only serve one master, and that sure ain't the poor.

UTA is proud of the fact that their customers spend more money for each trip than they would spend buying gas to go the same distance. Aren't you glad we are giving them $200 million in sales tax money every year?

The Utah Legislature should fold them into UDOT and then contract the service to a private firm that understands basic economics. Right now UTA is not responsible to taxpayers or customers so they gleefully take advantage of both.

$0.25? That's it? The riders should be shouldering a bigger share of the cost. Gas is up $1.80/gallon and fares barely change.

On January 1 it will cost $2.50 each way to get to work on the bus. That means many people will be paying a dollar per mile for UTA's wonderful bus service. Does your car only get one mile for each dollar?

UTA does not want customers.

I have a beef with the semantics here. Everybody's doing it these days, airlines, trucking outfits, etc.
They're adding 'fees' and 'surcharges' and 'riders'.
Cut the nonsense. If you're the customer you can call it apple pie if you want, but a price increase is a price increase. Stop dancing around it. I don't even mind, we all know fuel is more expensive. But stop telling us the price of a given service hasn't gone up, just the surcharges. When we buy a plane ticket, tell us how much it costs, not that the ticket is cheap but we need to chip in for gas.

Voters Voted for a Improvement in the Transit System
not the Destruction of Bus System! UTA has a Good Bus System Down Town Salt Lake City and in the Avenues, also up at the University of Utah. The East and West Side of Salt Lake City and the rest Salt Lake County the Bus System has been Destroy. Every time UTA raises Fares it Reduces Ridership, the Fuel Surcharge is more Destruction of the Bus System. Please HELP UDOT!

I ride Trax for 17 miles. At $2.50 per ride for 17 miles, the cost is actually $.147 per mile. Unless I'm missing something, or only riding the bus really short distances, your math doesn't add up.

I wonder how much longer it will be before I can no longer afford to get to work.... Thanks UTA for making us pay some of the highest prices for public transportation in the US. I haven't fully researched this, but I'm sure we do.

Wow, what a weird people commenting on this board so far. The first person above does have some concern for those fixed income elderly and disable do have some concern. People with disability will get the shaft and ready to rrrrooooooooottttttt away soon. I live in a area where they took away my fix route and paratransit keep saying we have to abide the ADA Law that if no fixed service is available within 3/4 miles - "YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN". You are on your own getting to nearest to fixed route then para transit will serve you. Mailman can do this but those fixed or erdlerly and disable people has every right to worry. Is this a free country? Well in some way for a lot of those people but us "NO". UTA need to get rid of this ADA LAW. PERIOD!

I don't know if anyone else has noticed this but I have and that is that the number of riders has gone UP with the gas prices. With more riders taking trax and buses I see them already getting more money without the increase therefore this surcharge that they are going to get for the reason they claim "to help pay for the increases in gas prices" is wrong and I see the people who sit on their duffs in the offices of UTA lining their pockets with the money. They are getting this money from the surcharge as well the many new riders.

If UTA had more routes that take Utah county riders to trax, I believe they would get more riders. It costs me about $6 a day to work in Sandy. My office is next door to a trax station, but to use UTA I would have to take a bus South to Provo, transfer to a bus to go north to the UTA trax station and add an hour each way to my commute. Or I can catch a bus near my home that takes the freeway all the way to downtown SLC and then catch trax back to Sandy. Those are my choices. So I drive in a car all by myself.

Somebody remind me: Why are Trax fares going up? Trax runs on electricity - the cost of operating Trax is completely independent of the cost of oil/gas/diesel. That's one of the attractive things about Trax - its cost isn't subject to the world oil market......so what does UTA do? They up the price because of high oil prices!

I've said it before and I'll say it again: UTA just doesn't get it.

Have you tried the 811 bus with service with stops in Provo, Orem, American Fork, and Lehi. It runs quite frequently - especially during rush hour times.

On January 1 you will pay $5 round trip for UTA even if you travel only 1/4 mile so I guess there could be people who would pay $10 per mile riding UTA. Someone who rides from Rose Park to the University of Utah for a part time job will pay just under $1 per mile-- because part timers do not qualify for the super discount rate that the professors get of $4 per month. Even someone who travels 10 miles each way will need a car with below average gas mileage to pay less to ride than they would pay for fuel to drive the same distance.

UTA charges much higher than market value for their service. That reduces ridership at increases the tax subsidy per rider. I don't know why conservatives in this state don't understand basic economics but the conservatives that control the UTA Board of Trustees obviously need some training.

UT County: I just looked at the UTA web site. There is a Utah Valley/ TRAX Connector. It takes just under one hour to get from 20 East 200 South in Provo to the Sandy TRAX station. There you are.
I ride the fast bus from the Valley Fair Mall to the Univ. of Utah. The other day we figured we are saving about $7 a day not driving. Believe me, I have my issues with UTA, but I make it work because it saves me money and it saves me from road rage and just idiot drivers.
It is amazing the people who advocate eliminating UTA and privitizing the system. O.K. if you think you can do it cheaper then go for it; people will flock to your system. Good luck.

I did a little research of bus systems around the country and here is what it costs per ride in other cities:
Seattle - $1.75
Denver - $1.75
Phoenix - $1.25
Albuquerque - $1.00
Kansas City - $1.25
Atlanta - $1.75
Columbia, SC - $1.50
Boston - $1.70

I don't know how many are "upping" their fares as that info is usually pretty crypic on the websites, but this should give everyone something to compare.

Am I blind or did this reporter fail to tell us when these changes take effect? I'd like to know so I can plan.

UTA officials are not making money off of this surcharge. Even as subsidized as it is, UTA still cannot cover its costs. It may not be pretty, but a fuel surcharge is necessary. It is NOT going to line the pockets of UTA officials. What a joke.

Also, public transportation is never going to be as convenient as driving yourself. Get over it. Walk a little more, bike a little more, and complain a little less. I commute every day from Provo to SLC, don't own a car, and am able to run errands just fine using the buses. It takes a little extra planning and time, but it's worth it in the money I save on gas, insurance, car maintenance, and car ownership. Do I have to walk a few blocks extra? Yes. But buses were never designed to be door-to-door service.

And no, it is not the government's job to take care of us. We pay some of the lowest prices for gas, period.