During the cuts last year UTA introduced this great new bus service to the valley called "Fast Bus". What UTA did was turn the former 48 in the 327, the 46 into the 346, and create a new route number 313. The concept was to get people to downtown faster. In fact it would be a big part of the changes that will come in August.
If the first three lines are any indication we are heading for a failure.
Lets remember that the 48 line was already a success. UTA did one smart thing and that was reroute the line to Daybreak. The they turned around and made it limited stop. However the 46 line was already a weak performer but Fast Bus was going to make it a much better route.
Well if they did such a good job with the 313 and 346 why are they essentially discontinued? Oh yeah the 346 will still run but it will not go downtown instead it will terminate at the Historic Sandy TRAX station. Why don't they just go ahead and restore the stops since their admitting the 346 was a failure.
The 313 that will be running after August 26 is a different animal that the current 313. Instead of heading downtown it will go to the University of Utah instead. So once again UTA would admit it, but the line was a failure.
The question once again has to be asked, who is held accountable in the fact that these routes failed? Will any planner be held accountable? Of course not.
As I have said in the past, the Fast Bus program is like the ski bus service, a major waste of capital resources. Fast Buses sit all day in the yard after making a trip or two while the ski buses sit 8 months out of the year.
We will see what the next year brings us. Of course we there is a bunch of proposals for changes next year, the board of Trustees will say well we made a mistake and approve changes. They will not hold the planners accountable to make a working plan.
Will we end up like Orange County, CA and slowly change many routes back? Time will tell.
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