UTA Cuts Public Bus Service to All Utah Ski Resorts Due to Staffing Shortages

A public UTA bus at Utah’s Powder Mountain in March 2022.

Public bus service will be reduced to all major Utah ski resorts next season due to a lack of bus drivers, the Utah Transit Authority (UTA) has reported. The agency is experiencing staffing shortages, and is making several service cuts on December 11th to reflect the number of available employees.

A handful of bus routes, including Route 953 from Midvale to Alta/Snowbird and Route 901 from Salt Lake City to Park City, will be fully discontinued. Other routes have had their frequencies cut down from 15-minute to 30-minute intervals, or have had their service restructured to run more mid-day and less peak trips. The full list of service changes can be found here.

Our Take

While UTA’s public buses may not seem that important to vacation-goers renting cars or staying on the mountain, they provide a critical pipeline for locals and employees to reach Utah’s ski resorts. And decreased bus service may just add to the parking problems experienced by nearly every Utah resort at this point in time. We’re especially hoping that the reduced bus service can still provide a reasonable alternative to driving to Alta and Snowbird on weekends, both of which have implemented significant parking restrictions to try to mitigate capacity issues.

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