By Marianna Kocharyan
With gas prices continuing to climb, Utah Transit Authority has purchased 30 new, small, fuel-smart buses to feed routes into TRAX and to access neighborhoods with narrow streets in Salt Lake County.
Although the new vehicles cost UTA $280,000 each, they use 20 percent less fuel than the standard 40-foot buses. The new buses are half the length of the larger ones.
?The price in fuel has impacted everyone, in particularly UTA,? said Justin Jones, spokesman for UTA. ?We purchase five million gallons of gas annually, and a 20 percent reduction in fuel costs for us is very important.?
According to Jones, the new buses will have a window in the back.
?In most buses you walk into a bus, it has windows on the sides, and as you go to the back it feels like a cave,? Jones said. ?This window in the back provides additional opportunity for the sunlight to shine through, and it just has a very open, very welcoming feeling.?
Jones said the first five buses will be ready in June, and the rest will be available by August.
The new buses will also be digital. For instance, drivers will be able to find out the brake pressure at the push of a button. In addition, each will be equipped with a device that can detect if a bike or car is near or behind the bus.
Jerry Benson, the chief performance officer of UTA, said they plan to replace some of their 40-foot buses with the smaller 30-foot ones.
?We think that they will provide our customers with a better riding experience,? Benson said. ?For those routes where we can use the smaller buses, they are more efficient and more maneuverable, they are very easy to get on and off of, they are very light and have an open feel inside, and customers will find them to be more comfortable.?
Although these compact buses cost UTA a considerable amount of money, there will be no price change in purchasing bus tickets.
The new buses will be used in Salt Lake County, primarily in the Salt Lake City Avenues area as well as in downtown routes but not in Utah County.
Benson said they didn?t have the routes in Utah County with a low enough ridership throughout the day that the new buses could serve. They have the opposite problem, where at some points during the day the buses have a full-seated load with people often standing.
?We just don?t have places we could put smaller buses right now in Utah County,? Benson said. ?In fact, if we could we would be putting larger buses in Utah County.?