Sometime this spring, Wasatch Front motorists will find out that it may take a few more seconds to get around a new Utah Transit Authority bus -- a bus with a new look that will likely turn a few heads as well.
That's when the UTA is scheduled to receive and deploy 12 extra-long articulated buses -- 60-foot coaches that seat 60 and can carry 60 more standing-room passengers.The diesel buses were purchased from New Flyer of America for $412,861 apiece. They were ordered two years ago and assembled at the company's plants in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Crookston, Minn. The first bus is scheduled to be driven to Salt Lake City in a couple of weeks.
Articulated buses are essentially two buses connected in the middle by a flexible joint that looks something like the bellows of an accordion.
"We're very excited and feel they'll be very useful to us," said UTA spokeswoman Coralie Alder. "With articulated buses, you can put more passengers on those high-load routes and still have the one operator, so it helps to reduce operation costs."
The new buses should bring relief to passengers who travel UTA's most crowded routes. While no final decisions have been made, the New Flyers likely will be put in use during weekday rush hours on Route 72, the Ogden-Salt Lake City express; Route 201, the Provo-Salt Lake City express; and on other high-demand corridors such as State Street and Redwood Road.
Alder said Mike Allegra, UTA's director of transit development, wants to test the articulated buses on several routes to see where they work best. A permanent use for them probably won't be determined until August, Alder said, and those assignments could change when TRAX light rail begins operation no later than March 2000.
The articulated buses will be easier to get into and out of, as well. All 12 are low-floor buses, meaning passengers can step directly from the curb and onto the floor platform without walking up steps.
"The coach is actually lower, closer to curb height," said Pam Vernaus, marketing manager in New Flyer's Winnipeg office. "A traditional high-floor bus uses a wheelchair lift to aid handicapped people, but that doesn't help seniors, a mother with children or people carrying groceries.
"We have a very complex ramp system that flips out to allow people with walkers and wheelchairs to get on. It takes less time to board."
Low-floor buses have become the norm in the transit industry, in part because they don't cost any more than high-floor buses, Vernaus said. They will be the norm along the Wasatch Front, too, as UTA slowly replaces older buses with new low-floor models.
In addition to New Flyer articulated buses, UTA has ordered 101 Gillig low-floor buses.
Twenty-nine, 35-foot low-floor buses, costing $250,000 each, will arrive in November. They will be used primarily as downtown shuttles, particularly on Main Street, once the light-rail system opens.
Seventy-two, 40-foot low-floor buses, at a price of $260,000 apiece, will begin arriving in January. The 40-foot buses will seat about 42 to 44 passengers.
"Other transit systems are having great success" with low-floor buses, Alder said. "Everything I've heard in board meetings is that unless there's a real problem with them, which we don't foresee, everything we order now (to replace older buses) will be low-floor."
Vernaus said New Flyer builds more than 1,400 buses each year, about 30 percent of which are articulated buses. UTA is only the second North American transit agency to receive shipment of the low-floor articulated buses, she said. The first group went to Everett, Wash., and a third order is destined for Honolulu, she said.
New Flyer's high-floor articulated buses are now operating in Las Vegas, and soon will be in Seattle.
"In Las Vegas, they use them on the strip and they are loaded to capacity constantly," Vernaus said. "In other cities, they have been used during rush hours because you can move a lot of people at a lot less cost because you only have one driver and one engine to maintain."
The New Flyer buses have especially large windows, and the driver sits on a raised platform. The floor is about 20 inches lower than on a standard bus, Vernaus said.
Today, UTA has about 550 buses transporting more than 85,000 people a day. It has more than 150 bus routes, 43 park-and-ride lots and 11,000 bus stops. The number of UTA riders is projected to grow to 107,900 by 2010.