The Utah Transit Authority announced a series of route changes Wednesday due to a bus driver shortage.
The Park City-Salt Lake City Connect bus route will be significantly reduced as part of the new schedule adjustments.
The west-bound bus currently starts at Kimball Junction and runs through the University of Utah to Salt Lake Central Station.
Starting December 11, the bus will only make one stop in the Salt Lake Valley: the Olympus Cove park-and-ride in Millcreek. The elimination of the five stops will significantly increase commute times for some bus users, who will need to add other legs to their trips.
UTA’s route 4 bus can be used to access the Olympus Cove park-and-ride from downtown Salt Lake City and the university.
During ski season, UTA also runs a bus to Park City that starts at the Meadowbrook TRAX Station in South Salt Lake - that line will be cut completely.
UTA Manager of Service Planning Eric Callison said shortening the PC-SLC Connect route will make their service more efficient.
“So what we’re trying to do by shortening the route is to be able to run it all day, more frequently," Callison said.
"Right now there’s like a three hour gap in the middle of the day. And also to be able to run it a little earlier and later.”
Callison said they’re hoping to run buses until 10 p.m., in an effort to service workers. The last bus currently leaves Park City around 7:30 p.m. The full schedule is currently in the works.
UTA bus driver pay starts at $20 per hour. After drivers complete training, that goes up to $21. Drivers then get a $0.50 bump every six months for four years.
To boost retention, UTA Executive Director Jay Fox said they’ve started offering full benefits to drivers who are in training, which lasts around five to six weeks.
“We’ve been working with our board, we’ve been budgeting for next year to increase our funding towards bus operations to help with supervisor ratio," Fox said.
"Because the less people that are reporting to a supervisor, the more they're able to kind of assist and help out those young operators, who when they come in we want to make sure that we keep.”
UTA is also cutting the frequency of its ski buses that service the Cottonwood Canyons. Instead of running every 15 minutes, they’ll run every 30.
Callison added that the agency is eventually planning to make the PC-SLC bus fleet entirely electric.
A link to a full list of UTA’s route changes can be found here.
