UTA Transit Academy

Representative Gay Lynn Bennion and I, amongst other elected officials, participated in UTA’s Transit Academy May 24th.

Rep Kay Christenson, Chair of the House Transportation Committee, was on a small group tour of the new gigantic UTA depot facility afterwards with me. Had a chance to introduce myself and visit with him. When the UTA guide proudly pointed out how the enormous concrete floors had been finished with a quartz topping to make the work space brighter, Christenson said: “Well, it will all soon be covered in grease.”

As an old school civil engineer, he seems to accept the grease and mechanical diesel paradigm, but, you know me, as tactfully as I could I brought up the virtues of more E-buses to UTA fleet, less labor costs associated w maintenance, etc.

Factoid: UTA has set a goal of 50% of their fleet be non-carbon emitting buses (combination of hydrogen-battery, natural gas and E-buses) by 2040? (Is that enough, soon enough?)

Factoid: UTA operates in four counties: Box Elder, Weber, Tooele and Salt Lake.