Comments about ‘State lawmakers question UTA response to financial audit’

Stop all transfer of tax dollars to UTA until it has fully complied with all requirements attached to using those tax dollars.

Every time there is a problem between government and quasi-private enterprise, all tax dollars should be withheld until there is 100% compliance.

Citizens elect representatives. Those representatives are bound by honor to protect the citizens from companies who pretend that tax dollars are theirs for the taking.

Each passenger riding UTA is being subsidized by non-passengers. UTA would not have the ability to handle the volume if non-passengers suddenly decided to park their cars and ride UTA.

Tax payers do not have extra dollars sitting around to fund UTA's mismanagement of assets.

Stop tax payments. Make UTA comply. Make UTA accountable. Citizens would go to jail if they played fast and loose with taxing authorities. Why should UTA be treated differently than the citizens who pay the bulk of UTA's operating expenses?

Actually I'm a little surprised that UTA even responded to the audit. From everything I've seen they don't seem to think they're accountable to anyone. I've attended their "board" meetings (I use term loosely)and don't see the "board" doing anything except rubber stamping everything management does/says; INCLUDING increasing the bosses' salaries.

UTA is badly mismanaged and has been for at least 7 years.

The question I have now is: what will it take to TOTALLY DISSOLVE or privatize UTA?

The DABC debacle will look like "peanuts" by the time the legislature ever gets around to doing anything about UTA.

Thanks to the legislature for TRYING to do something about UTA, but they receive over 275 million in tax dollars, somebody (besides UTA) needs to be watching them.

all I want is to dump this FR all together and stop Drpaer. Finish up Airport and get back my fixed service along 13th east btwn For Union to Sandy Civic Ctr. I know it won't happen because they took out sevice along 7th east too. And Paratransit won't come to my area because I have no fixed service inside the 3/4 mile radius. There are other people who are affected of losing their service and $$$$ greedy upper management continue to get raises.

@"DEW" You have probably noticed that whenever UTA gets more choo-choo trains running they drop more and more bus service.

That works well if everyone lives/works near a TRAX/frontrunner station.

This valley is much more rural than that.

The original Sandy line and the University line have plenty of riders. The new lines don't.

Watch for UTA to institute some sort of a fare increase and/or a "fuel surcharge" (even on electrically powered trains) in order to keep service running.

@Fitness Freak, have you ever been on the Mid-Jordan portion of the Red line? Apparently not, since you claim nobody is riding it. A little observation will show that quite the opposite is true.

@"Z"
Yes, I've ridden Daybreak line about 5 times (roundtrip). It gets good use during peak hours, not so much off-peak. I've also been in my car several times and noted not many riders during the day.

I ride the WVC line quite a bit and it is used even less. Actually it impedes traffic so much around Valley Fair Mall, that I doubt if it even justifies blocking traffic the way it does.

Granted, the Sandy line and the University line are ridden much heavier (by my observation).

UTA has spent close to a billion dollars to build train lines, not including the original Sandy and U. of U. lines.
That much can buy and maintain A LOT of buses.

SHUT IT DOWN!

Ditto on cutting off funding to the UTA. Since they are so blatently unwilling to operate in a cost effective manner thinking they can just take whatever taxpayer money they take a fancy to, then the upper eschelons of this buerocracy needs to go. In all candor, it would be nice if they were held responsible for the extortion they enact in the name of "green transportation". Everyone is being extorted here in increased taxes, but especially those who have to depend on public transportation such as those with dissabilities who usually don't have any other option, with radical decreases in service, and what is still available is quickly slipping out of their financial grasp. If the UTA wishes to continue with taxpayer funded subsidies, there needs to be strict guidelines on how the funding is to be used, and they need to be accountable for it with rules with some teeth.

@Fitness Freak

Of course the lines don't get as much use during off-peak hours. That is the definition of "Off-Peak". The same is and was true of the old Sandy and University lines. And the same is true of any type of transit system, or even the roads for that matter. Usage is highest during the morning and evening commute hours, and much lower during the rest of the day.

So what are we really looking for as a measure of success in our transit systems? Is it a system that is fast and reliable? A system that covers a wide area? A system that is inexpensive to ride? To operate? Everyone on this board has a different answer, including the liberatarian view that we should not have a transit system at all.

I believe that we need to have a healthy dialog on this issue, but we need to realize what the system will and will not accomplish. But one thing we all need to realize is that neither the rosiest projections nor the most dire denunciations are likely true. We will most likely find the truth somewhere in the middle.

@Z
I agree on most things you're saying.
I ride transit 3-4x per week (usually buses).

I think we badly need mass transit, but I don't think UTA has done a very good job of using the dollars they get.

For instance, I've been to several UTA "board" meetings. The "board" basically rubber stamps anything/everything management wants. I don't expect to get my way, I only think the "board" needs to be more proactive with riders. Seek out someone (or attend yourself)and see firsthand how the "board" operates.

One of the problems I have with how they operate is consistency. They change the bus times/routes at least once per year, usually more, especially when they open a new trax line. Workers can't adjust their schedules to fit UTA, rather UTA SHOULD be adding to service, rather than taking away. If they have enough funds to open a new trax line that SHOULD be in addition to whatever EXISTING service they already have.
In other words, they consistently take money from bus service to pay for trains.
Trains are probably a good idea 15 yrs. from now. Not yet.

I agree that the DABC is peanuts compared to the UTA. As a quasi-treated agency, it appears to have autonomy, sort of like the Workers' Compensation Fund of Utah. With the board and very high paid for Utah type directors and managers, the oversight for such high amounts of money is not quite the same as with the Utah DOT. A billion dollars is quite a bit but to think of a campaign with that much money for an incumbent President is very large. Audits are good and especially by theoretically outside people is best. However, the frequency of the audit should be triggered by time and also by events or dollar amounts that are either plus or minus a certain amount to ensure the public is served by those in the agency and those that supervise the flow of dollars, to and from, whether at federal or state level.

The UTA has been overpaying top management for years. They are cutting off bus service as they expand unwanted train service. They don't seem to care about the audit or anything else. They seem to be corrupt and it has been this way for many years. Start shutting UTA down. Stop wasting taxpayer contributions to an organization that doesn't care about anything but itself.

Seriously, how often do we need new busses and trains?

Meanwhile our kids sit packed in a tiny classroom meant for 20 but holding 40.

some of the stops on the south jordan line have no home or apartments there and have no reason to have been built other than for rio tinto future buildings. it is a corupt thing. because they had to come back and make stops at the expo center and the 900 south areas that already had populations there. poor get less then the rich. thus the draper line. nothig close still to riverton and blufdale. shortest ride the light rail to the hospital 65 min, after driving or getting buss ride there. so we drive.

News flash! UTA is a HUGE waste of money! People have been saying that for years now.

Quit subsidizing the ridiculous light rail program and reinvest that money to fix our poorly maintained roads.