UTA: staffing shortages to blame for some service delays

SALT LAKE CITY — Staffing shortages at the Utah Transit Authority were made visible this week with the cancellation of several Monday morning trips on the TRAX Blue Line.

UTA sent out an alert at 5:16 a.m. Monday with a list of five northbound and five southbound trips that wouldn’t be running due to staffing shortages. The impacted services were restored by midday.

#TRAX Alert 5:16 AM: On TRAX Blue Line, expect delays this morning due to a staffing shortage as certain trips have been cancelled:

Northbound Trips
6:13 PM
8:13 PM
10:13 PM
12:13 PM
2:13 PM

Southbound Trips
5:49 AM
7:11 AM
9:11 AM
11:11 AM
1:11 PM

— Utah Transit Authority – UTA (@RideUTA) August 1, 2022

“There are staffing shortages and it’s something that actually we want to get out there because we’d like to encourage people to come and take a look at UTA,” said spokesperson Carl Arky.

The lack of operators is most severe with bus drivers, Arky said. In all, UTA needs to hire 95 operators. The transit system has a total of 1,001 operator positions.

“The people in human resources at UTA are working on it around the clock,” Arky said. “We are trying to bring in good people and we are trying to continue our service and be as reliable as we can. Has it impacted service? At times, yes. At times we’ve had to discontinue a trip for that day.”

Bus service in the Salt Lake area is down 60 drivers. The Ogden area is short 17 drivers and paratransit services is lacking 13 drivers. In addition, TRAX needs five operators, according to Arky.

The staffing issues make the public transit system vulnerable to delays and cancellations on days when too many employees are absent.

“When we have a driver shortage to begin with and then we have operators calling in sick we have to scramble a little bit,” Arky said.

UTA said it’s seeing a steady climb in ridership coming out of the pandemic. Arky said competition among the labor force because of Utah’s low unemployment rate of just 2% makes it difficult to fill positions.

“Everybody is looking for employees,” he said, “and not just employees, we want good employees.”

Arky reminded that this is an important week for UTA riders to check for possible changes or cancellations to their routes with Sunday’s “Change Day.” It’s one of three times in the year that UTA makes adjustments to services based ridership, feedback, seasonal factors.