A new scaled-back schedule for the Park City/Summit County transit system was announced recently.
On April 22nd, County Council members heard a few brief remarks about the system’s current financial outlook and its operations.
During the Comments section of the meeting, County Council Member Kim Carson and County Manager Tom Fisher mentioned they attended a recent meeting of JTAB—the Joint Transportation Advisory Board.
Fisher said that both the county and Park City are looking at the decreased sales taxes to support transit; their revenue projections, and the possibility they can get aid from the federal CARES Act.
“And what that does to us, if there isn’t any federal aid that comes in, it would be a huge adjustment to our system that we’d have to make. Now, that could be a blessing or a curse, depending on how you look at it. But the long and short of it is that, at least what I took out of it is that, keeping current services as we’ve known them over the last few years is going to be a difficult task, especially with staffing. Not that it can’t be done yet. I don’t know that, but it is going to be difficult. And then enhanced services, or doing anything more than what we’re already doing—I can’t even predict that right now.”
Kim Carson added, though that the buses are operating with new measures to maintain the health of both the drivers and passengers.
“They are adding sneeze-guards to protect the drivers, and actually the passengers. Masks are required for the drivers. And they’re doing extra cleaning on the buses. So I think when people ride them, they can feel safe that that’s being done. (Fisher) Yeah, and there’s gonna be national standards that come out with that from national associations around transit that we’ll be able to follow, and can be put into our orders as well.”
Summit County Council Member Kim Carson and County Manager Tom Fisher.
