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Show Page 6-Wasatch Canyon Reporter, May 1995 UTA, RAY, AND THOSE DARN THE CANYONS: BUSES AND WHO’S GOING TO PAY FOR THEM | by David Charles Baker | people interviewed for this proofing - and ski racks. They are also shorter and narrower. A popular rumor has article. It’s not original to them costing significantly him, but it seems to fit.. There more than valley buses. According to Barnes, “While it is a specialized bus, it costs about the same as the buses we use on the regular routes.” To buy them originally the Feds put up 80%, the UTA “put up 10% and the four canyon ski areas split the remaining 10%. In 1991 nine additional buses were pur- “There are lies, damn lies, and statistics,’ said one of the are SO many variations on the “facts” that it is tough to sort it all out. Here’s what we i “know.” Some time in the seven- - ties the Utah Transit Authority decided to offer bus service to Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons. According to the UTA’s own Bill Barnes it was the late-seventies and it was not a success. The UTA tried chased with the ski areas again paying a share. The offering bus service in the buses canyons using their regular buses. It did not work well as the buses lacked the power twelve years. " plicated. With an order- close to 18 the brakes to come down slowly, and were too wide and asked for 20% of the cost of long to negotiate the corners — the new buses - or about $1.7 — easily. In 1984 everyone got million, with the Feds again together and purchased buses putting up the other 80%. made just for the canyons. According to Ray Gardiner, The canyon buses have a few CEO _ special features that the regu-_ lar buses do not (hence the of _— Snowbird Corporation, the areas would split the 1.7 extra-large as fol- term, “special features.”). Among them: different brakes lows: & transmissions, extra rust- Brighton & Solitude - around Alta & approximately The ‘Bird fol; Sou along ood, because a gets more com- months, the order had to go in this year. This time the UTA went to the four areas and and traction to go up quickly, lle ilaats Everyone have a life of about to-delivery time per mile was $1.55 per mile taxes alone. with total cost per ski service Cost per mile: Here is a mile is $1.72 in the canyons” sticky one. How this is fig© versus $2.45 valley service ured is a mystery to me. The _ figures Gardiner presented mile. | seem clear, and they are from The UTA uses the buses Gardiner, as we all know, _ year-round: Gardiner claims. the UTA’s own report. The does not want to contribute © that the UTA would be paying UTA claims they are misunderstood and the cost of opernothing for these buses but $600,000 plus. He does not want to contribute anything, ating is actually more in the would be using them on other routes in the summers. and he backs up his stance canyons but the cost per rider with several reasons - which I Other businesses are and the revenue returned is will try to summarize here. figured in to, to... well... let’s getting free service: Taxes. Gardiner points Kennecott, Lagoon, Ogden face it. I didn’t understand out that Snowbird, along with IRS, ZCMI mall, and Hill and my Dad was a mathematiAir Force Base have been cran. This is where those the rest of us, pays sales tax. “ lies and statistics...’ come They pay sales tax on items cited by Gardiner and/or by they buy and they collect in. Statistics can be made to my colleagues as organizasales tax on items then sell. tions who get special bus sertell all sorts of tales. It would One quarter of one percent of vice without having to pe the seem to me that driving up all sales tax goes to the UTA. and down a canyon would buses. cost more than on the flat, but The tax paid by Snowbird and Snowbird is not against making fewer stops (the all the other resorts amounts _ public transportation: to a tidy sum that, especially Snowbird helped with the canyons) would cost less than over twelve years, should pay construction of the park-andstopping frequently and dri-. ving in traffic (the valley). for buses. ride lots at the bases of Big Cost per mile lower. and Little Cottonwood Then there is the rider factor. A full bus laboring up the Canyons - .and with the Gardiner sites UTA’s own canyon is better than an executive summary that states swamp lot. They encourage empty bus cruising down © employees to ride the buses ski area ridership is up while valley-wide there has been a by paying their fares. Any State Street. Adding to the confusion are the figures in slight decline. Gardiner read canyon employee can ride the Wharton’s article: “$ 1.29 perfrom the summary where it bus for free with a valid searider sales tax subsidy for valson pass. The UTA keeps said the “direct operating cost track and bills the resorts - ley riders, $3.80 per rider for the ski buses.” What does with Snowbird paying $20that mean? To what does it 30,000 per year in fares for their employees. Finally, if go? If Uncle Sam and the ski areas are buying the buses, you must drive Snowbird where is $3.80 per rider saves the best parking spots $229,000 cache - $617,000, = VERMONT SYRUPWORKS NORWICH, VT _ for people who car-pool. Full cars get to park close to the center. What does the PURE VERMONT MAPLE SYRUP We just finished boiling the 95 crop ‘from approximately 40 acres of sugar maples. For a price list, please call 1 800 40 SYRUP and leave your name and address. Vermont Syrupworks 335 Hopson Road Norwich VT 05055-9442 Local 649-1219 Fax (802) 649-3906 We sell only syrup made from the sap of our own trees and boiled in modern stainless steel equipment TA have to say about all this? Bill Barnes, spokesperson for the Utah Transit Authority, disagrees with most of going? 3 Barnes response to the claim that the canyon buses are used in the summer is: not true - almost. The intention is to store them, but when there is an unusually high demand for buses, the canyon buses will be brought out. An — Gardiner’s claims. — As for taxes, he agrees that the canyons deserve, and example Barnes gave was a will get, bus service no matter buses what. His estimate is that Snowbird would get 15% of port the fans. Overall Barnes the current service. Ina 16 May Tribune column by Tom Wharton, the UTA’s John Inglish implies that the Friday night BYU football game last summer when extra were needed estimated that 90% of the bus to transof the life Oa is spent in the canyons, with the rest (that would be 10%) summer use. Other businesses getting canyons are entitled to 25% of free service: Barnes has a their current service based on |Continued on next page |