Utah Transit Authority provides BYU students, faculty and staff free public transportation, connecting them to Utah cities along the Wasatch Front.
Through the UTA School Pass Program, BYU students, faculty and staff can use their valid university IDs as passes to ride UTA buses, the TRAX light rail, the FrontRunner commuter rail system and UVX rapid transit buses.
However, the school pass program does not apply to UTA paratransit and ski bus services.
Students boarding UVX, TRAX or FrontRunner must tap their IDs on the station’s card reader when they enter and exit UTA transportation. Car readers are available near the doors of UTA buses.
According to its website, UTA does not track users’ locations through each tap, but each tap informs UTA how many people ride each route and how many students and staff use school passes.
The school pass program allows spouses and dependents of students, faculty and staff to ride free — a benefit only available to BYU and Utah Valley University students.
Gavin Gustafson, senior public information officer for UTA, said the school pass program connects UTA with participating universities to extend accessible transportation to and from Utah campuses. The program allows students to travel free without the stress of traffic and parking.
“We all want better connected communities, less traffic and cleaner air,” Gustafson said. “Each transit rider is one less car on the road which improves traffic, improves air quality and strengthens the community through real-world, in-person connections.”
Gustafson mentioned UVX travels through Provo and Orem, directing riders to each city’s FrontRunner station. UTA buses connect riders to the Provo Municipal Airport, Springville, Spanish Fork, Payson, Santaquin, Eagle Mountain and Brigham City. FrontRunner currently serves 16 stations from Provo to Ogden.
For students looking to travel to the Rice-Eccles Stadium for the BYU vs. University of Utah football game on Nov. 9, Gustafson suggested students ride UVX from BYU campus to Provo Central or Orem Central and board FrontRunner. Then, students should get off of the train at Murray Central station, transfer to TRAX Red Line and arrive at the stadium.
Gustafson also offered various tips and directions for riders looking to travel to popular locations along the Wasatch Front:
- For games or concerts in Sandy at Rio Tinto Stadium: Take FrontRunner to South Jordan Station, then take a UTA bus to the stadium.
- For downtown Salt Lake City: Take FrontRunner to Murray Central or Salt Lake Central, then take the TRAX Blue Line towards downtown.
- For the Salt Lake City International Airport: Take FrontRunner to North Temple, then take TRAX Green Line towards the airport.
- For Lagoon: Take FrontRunner to Farmington, then take a shuttle to Lagoon.
Gustafson said the Transit App offers information on transit, as well as trip planning and a live vehicle tracker.
“You can use the transit app to track the location of your bus, which is really nice, especially when your bus might be running behind or ahead due to traffic,” BYU English major Rachel Baldwin noted. “It gives you live notifications for when to start walking to your bus stop, based on how far away you and your bus are from the stop.”
Baldwin said she rides UTA buses almost daily to work or campus. She said using public transportation eliminates the worries of finding on-campus parking and reduces traffic.
BYU astrophysics student Zac Shakespear said he uses FrontRunner and UVX to travel from his residence in Herriman to BYU campus.
“I use UTA's services because it saves money on gas and lets me do my small part to not contribute to the valley's air quality problems,” Shakespear said. “I think the legislature should fund UTA more so that people can realistically use public transportation instead of a car.”
BYU senior Raymond Kelly said he often used FrontRunner to travel to Salt Lake City, and used UVX for destinations near the BYU campus.
“If I did not have free and easy access to the UTA services as a freshman or sophomore BYU student, I would have struggled to do a lot of essential things,” Kelly said. “The UTA being free meant that I could worry about rent, not transportation, and go wherever I needed to go.”
James Cheshire, a bioinformatics student from Spanish Fork, said he rides the UVX rapid transit buses. He said this allows him to avoid parking on BYU campus.
“By offering (public transportation) for free, it could make people fans of UTA services after they graduate and continue to use UTA services, even after it's no longer free,” Cheshire said. “As a growing state, it would help reduce traffic and our carbon footprint.”
BYU student Kaitlyn Jaussi noted UTA transit is convenient.
“My sister and I share a car, so I don’t always have access to it to get to campus, and it’s hard to find parking at BYU,” Jaussi said. “I don’t want to spend the gas money to get to the (BYU Salt Lake Center) either when I could ride the FrontRunner.”
Schedules for UTA public transportation can be found on their website. FrontRunner does not run on Sundays, and only some UTA bus lines run on Sundays.