Reader comments: UTA to celebrate TRAX extension

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Tammi Diaz | 2:04 p.m. April 18, 2008
TRAX and FRONTRUNNER is a IMPROVEMENT to are TRANSIT
SYSTEM, for INDIVIDUALS that have car to drive to a
park and ride lot. The first part of Board Mission Statement says: Utah Transit Authority Strengthens and Connects Communities thereby enabling individuals to Pursue a fuller Life with greater ease and convenience. For the several years UTA has been cutting back BUS ROUTES. VOTERS VOTED FOR A IMPROVED TRANSIT SYSTEM NOT THE DESTRUCTION OF THE BUS SYSTEM. The "Transit Dependent" Low Income Workers, Disabled and Elderly have Loss there FREEDOM. We need your Help Please UDOT.
No Bus Service | 3:21 p.m. April 18, 2008
The addition of trains lines are great, but bus service where I live, in Draper, is almost non-existent. Bus service is almost non-existent south of 100th South. I can't get to and from the train via bus most of the day, which makes the train useless to me. When my car is in the shop, I have to use my bike, cabs, or courtesy shuttles because of the nearly non-existent bus service in the SE corner of the valley. In Sugarhouse, I had 87 different busses to choose from. In Draper, you'd think I'd have more than a handful of inbound busses early morning and a handful of outbound busses late afternoon. They are just about useless to me.
TRAX busted Buses | 4:44 p.m. April 18, 2008
The reason that No Bus Service has no buses is that UTA reneged on its promises to increase bus service in Sandy/Draper when they built TRAX. Instead, they slashed them to ribbons after they shot the bus routes in the head with their rearrangment for TRAX.

There were 3 routes in Draper that probably had stops every block, giving a total of 6 or 8 dozen stops. Now there is one route that has only 5 stops in Draper.

The three Draper buse routes probably ran 30 times a day for a total of 90 bus runs daily, each way, (half hour service 6 AM till 6 PM- then hourly till 11 PM). Now there are only 6 AM and 6 PM runs daily....TOTAL!

So, you see there is almost nothing left of UTA bus service in this part of the valley.

When UTA changed it all to try to force bus service into a supporting role in the TRAX mold, they broke the bus system in the South East valley. Mr. Steve Swann admitted that was the case; he is the number 2 man at UTA for bus service development.

Good work, UTA.
Comments continue below
Anonymous | 5:49 p.m. April 18, 2008
Somebody has a problem with math. Every half hour from 6am to 6pm is 13 busses, then hourly until 11 is 5 more. That's 18 per day, not 30. Triple it and we have 54, not 90.

We used to have letters in the paper complaining about busses running empty or near empty. Those routes have been eliminated or combined with others. Now people complain that they don't have a bus that goes from their front door to downtown with no transfers.

Certain east-west routes coordinate with Trax stations, but there is no law that says you can only go there and never get off anywhere else. Most bus routes don't go to Trax stations at all, or only go to 1 at the end of the route.

Perhaps you should try contacting UTA with your concerns rather than just leaving nasty comments here. But then, the problem would be fixed, and whatever would you complain about then?
Anonymous | 9:41 p.m. April 18, 2008
Last week as I was in the Murray area seeing a friend I was really impressed with the buses up in the Salt Lake Valley, I was between 6300-6400 S. where Fashion Place mall is located, the buses their cam every 15-30 minutes, from where i was at, Good Job UTA

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