The Utah Transit Authority ranks 55th out of 135 metropolitan transit agencies in cost-effective performance, according to a study released this week by the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
That is the bus company's lowest ranking in the nine years that UNCC has rated the nation's largest transit providers. UTA was 44th a year ago and never had been rated lower than 48th in the country."The decline to 55th was caused by some slight increases in overall operating costs per mile and per hour," said David T. Hartgen, director of UNCC's Center for Interdisciplinary Transportation Studies. "Also, there was a slight increase in operating costs per trip and per vehicle mile."
Hartgen and his staff used federal statistics from 1996, the latest year for which data is available, and compared the frequency and extent of service provided by each of the transit agencies. They also evaluated ridership numbers, operating costs, passenger fares and the amount of taxpayer subsidy received by each agency.
Hartgen said while UTA's efficiency rating has changed position in comparison to others, UTA actually has been very consistent over the years in operating one of the more efficient transit companies in the nation.
UTA's ranking has fluctuated from 1988 to 1996 but not drastically. For the first three years, it was ranked 44th, 43rd and 30th, respectively. But during those years, the study included only the 102 largest transit agencies in the country.
UTA enjoyed its best overall ranking from UNCC (22nd) in the 1992 statistical year when its bus fare was just 65 cents, then dropped to 31st the following year. As the study expanded to encompass 135 agencies, UTA's numerical ranking slipped to 48th, 44th and now 55th.
UTA general manager John Inglish was not surprised that UTA's performance, as rated by UNCC, dropped in 1996.
"I know that in 1994, back in that period, we were going through a period of fairly strong ridership growth," Inglish said. "Our fares, I think, were pretty low, especially compared to national systems."
UTA, in fact, has raised fares three times in the last four years, impacting its UNCC rating. The cost of a one-way bus trip rose from 65 cents to 75 cents in January 1995, increased to 85 cents in August 1996 and went up to $1 in June 1997.
UTA's UNCC ranking isn't likely to improve when statistics for 1997 and 1998 are evaluated in the next two years, primarily because its ridership has flattened out. In December of 1996, UTA carried 88,482 passengers on an average weekday. In September of this year, that figure was slightly less at 88,367.
According to the study, UTA performed best in its ability to keep per-mile operating expenses low. It ranked 20th in the nation in that category. It also scored high in the amount of revenue it generates per bus trip (26th) and in the number of passengers it carries per vehicle during peak travel times (37th).