FrontRunner commuter rail hit the hardest, followed by Trax.
(Rick Egan | Tribune file photo) Sign on a UTA bus in downtown Salt Lake City shows that masks are required on Sept. 24, 2020. Final data shows UTA lost half of its ridership during 2020 because of the pandemic.
| Jan. 19, 2021, 9:29 p.m.
Year-end statistics show that the Utah Transit Authority lost half of its ridership during 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Ridership on buses was down by 40%; it was down on TRAX light rail by 52%; by 36% on the S-Line streetcar; and by 61% on the FrontRunner commuter train system.
“If you’re doing the math, ridership is down 47% [systemwide] in 2020 versus 2019,” Eddy Cummins, UTA chief operations officer, told the board last week.
KUER
Utah will extend its statewide mask order through Dec. 17. This story and more in Wednesday evening s news brief.
Wednesday evening, December 9, 2020
State
Utah Mask Mandate Extended
Utah will extend its statewide mask order through Dec. 17. This requires people to wear face masks in places where it is impossible to social distance outside the home. Other restrictions put in place by the state include limits on certain public gatherings and extracurricular activities. The state reported 2,574 new cases of COVID-19 Wednesday, and for the second day in a row, a reported 23 more people died from the disease. One of them was a Utah County male younger than 25. Currently 581 people are hospitalized.
Rally Transcript:
Patrick J. Foye, Chairman and CEO, MTA:
My colleagues and I have come together again today to discuss an issue critical to our survival federal relief for mass transit.
I repeat, there will be no economic recovery regionally or nationally without significant investment in mass transit. This is not a red or blue issue. It’s a jobs issue. Mass transit systems across the country carried the United States throughout the pandemic, and we will carry it out of this crisis. The immediate need is this in order to ensure the health care workers, grocery workers, first responders and other essential personnel can continue to get to work and beat this pandemic, we need substantial federal funding now. If relief doesn’t come soon, these deep cuts at the MTA and other agencies will take effect and they will fall disproportionately on the backs of working people, low-income customers, people of color and low-income communities. We’re all following with intense interest o