UTA is resuming ski bus service, ending long-standing detours via Salt Lake City this weekend

SALT LAKE CITY — Nearly all of Utah’s ski resorts are now open, and visitors looking to hit the slopes will have more options to get to several of them through this weekend.

Sunday marks the Utah Transit Authority’s December Transition Day, when adjustments will be made to transit service. Normally, this day marks the return of the agency’s ski bus service for the winter, along with some other adjustments to service along the Wasatch Front, but this year’s change day will include a little more as major construction projects come to an end in Salt Lake City.

The biggest adjustment next Sunday is that UTA buses will run the entire 200 South corridor through downtown Salt Lake City for the first time since construction began in 2022. Other routes hindered by construction work – mostly in Sugar House – will also be fully operational again.

Ski bus traffic will resume

Some of UTA’s seasonal ski bus services had already returned before the schedule change. The agency’s routes 972 and 994 to resorts in Big and Little Cottonwood canyons resumed Nov. 29, but additional service to Alta, called CS1 and CS2, will begin Sunday.

Route 674 to Powder Mountain returns Friday, while routes 675 and 677 to Snowbasin Resort resume Sunday. Route 880, which serves Sundance Mountain Resort, will return Dec. 21, although the resort opened Wednesday.

Over 200,000 riders used the UTA ski service last season, almost 10% more than the previous year. The changes this year reflect an effort to return to what existed before service cuts related to driver shortages in 2022.

“We want to provide the same level of service throughout our system in the winter as we do year-round,” UTA spokesman Gavin Gustafson said last month.

200 South will reopen

Salt Lake City transportation officials announced late last month that all major construction related to the 200 South project is now complete. The project combined two companies: Dominion Energy – now Enbridge Utah – and Salt Lake City.

Workers dug into the roadway to replace an aging gas line underneath, but that construction also allowed city transportation officials to redesign the road configuration while the roadway was backfilled.

The street now includes dedicated bus lanes, improved bike lanes, more intersections and better access for people with disabilities, city officials said. Before the project began, Kyle Cook, a traffic engineer with Salt Lake City’s transportation department, called the road a “strategic spine corridor,” which is why the bus lanes were included in the design.

Now that construction is complete, UTA bus routes 1, 2, 4, 205, 209 and 220 will resume service on 200 South through downtown. The greatest impact could be on users of lines 2, 205, 209 and 220, which operate from Salt Lake Central Station. For more than a year, all four routes downtown were rerouted on streets like 100 South and South Temple.

The long project also created many travel issues and frustrations for downtown businesses, similar to the issues faced by Sugar House businesses this year. Both projects were part of a bond approved by residents in 2018 to fund road improvements. Construction related to the bond will be completed next year with drastic changes to 200 South, 300 West, 1100 East/Highland Drive and 2100 South when the money is completely used up.

“We have made massive improvements to Salt Lake City’s streets,” Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall told KSL.com last week. “We are still in the process of completing construction, but it is a good sign that these projects are nearing completion.”

The mayor added that there are still many aging streets in need of repair, which is why she believes a new street bond could end up on the city’s ballot again at some point in the future.

More system changes

Meanwhile, starting Sunday, Route 220, which connects to the ski bus routes in Sandy, will also reopen at 1100 East/Highland Drive. During long-term construction at Sugar House, the road was rerouted to 900 East, but that project has since been completed.

Routes F11 and 223 will also return to normal routing this weekend after additional construction work is completed in Salt Lake City on the Avenues. Meanwhile, UTA officials say Route 47 will begin a detour in the middle of Salt Lake City via 3600 West, 4100 South and 4000 West.

Bigger changes are on the horizon. UTA is proposing more bus routes and connections to areas in northern Utah and southwest Salt Lake County. The new South Jordan Downtown TRAX station will also open in April 2025 and will stop in front of the Salt Lake Bees’ new Daybreak Field.

Other plans include launching UTA on Demand in a portion of Provo, including the airport.

UTA Director Jay Fox told KSL.com he believes these changes will help continue to boost ridership as it finally returns to pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels. UTA reported an average of 154,261 weekday boardings in September. That made it the agency’s busiest month since February 2020, surpassing several months in 2019.

This year too, the agency expects to reach almost 40 million customers.

“We will be restoring and expanding service on many of our local routes,” he said. “It’s exciting to see the results of demand for our service.”