Have you ever wanted to go skiing in Utah right now?

Man, they've got brand new snow up on the hills.

We went up there a month ago, outside of Salt Lake City and got to see where the

Olympics were gonna be held in nine years, the 2034 Winter Olympics, back on the

same site that they had quite a while ago.

I'm Paul Comfort, and on this episode of Transit Unplugged, we

take you inside the transit system that serves the Salt Lake City area.

It's a large regional system called the Utah Transit Authority, and my

friend Jay Fox is executive director.

He's been there four years.

He's got a great background in transit, both at the Federal

Transit Administration, at Amtrak, at SEPTA, even time at the

Federal Aviation Administration.

He brought all that experience with him to Utah where he now is helping

to deliver tremendous results.

So much so that their agency was awarded the Transit System of

the Year by the American Public Transportation Association this year,

congratulations to Jay and his team.

We were there filming an episode of Transit Unplugged TV, which

will air this February on YouTube and other digital channels.

And today we dive deep into the transit system.

We talk about the ROI on transit $1 invested in UTA Utah Transit Authority

generates $5.11 in economic return, and they've got the receipts to prove it.

This ROI concept is very interesting.

They've also got their commuter rail service Front Runner.

He just got back from Washington, DC where he's lobbying for additional

federal funds to help them double track their service so they can increase their

capacity of services on the commuter rail, their ridership is skyrocketing.

They've got all kinds of exciting things going on with

Bus Rapid Transit, et cetera.

We show it all to you in a couple months, but today you get to

hear about it in depth from Jay Fox, their executive director.

Enjoy this conversation.

We're with Jay Fox today.

Jay is Executive director of the Utah Transit Authority in Salt Lake.

Jay, thanks for joining the show.

Ah, thanks for having me, Paul.

I really appreciate it.

I'm really looking forward to the show.

Thank you.

Yeah, we had such a great time with you.

About a month ago, our team from Transit Unplugged were

out visiting with your agency.

Gavin Gustafson helped, your public information officer helped kind of be our

guide and we got to see your whole system.

We got to ride all your different services and what a fantastic area.

Jay, you've landed in a great place to live, and what a great system.

Yeah.

No, it's a really cool place.

So, I mean, one, it's nice to live where other people vacation.

Yeah.

And number two is, you know, it's such a great, great system.

You know, when I was at Federal Transit, just people just rave

about, you know, what we do and what this, you know, what this means.

What an agency that moves 40 and a half million people means to a state that has

to only three and a half million people.

So it's a fantas, I really, it's a privilege to be the

executive director here.

Yeah.

You've been there four years now?

It's four years, yeah.

I'm just finishing my fourth year.

And, yeah, it's been, every year has its own challenges, but, you know,

every year we just keep getting it done you know, over and over again.

It's great.

3000 employees and they make it happen every day.

Absolutely.

Now, you were just in Washington, DC this week, right?

I mean, you're, I mean, you mentioned you worked at FTA as well, and we'll

dive into your background in a minute, but you've got great connections there.

And what were you there working on in DC?

Yeah, so we're, you know, our Front Runner 2X project, which is the

double tracking of Front Runner.

Right now we have 25% double tracking for our system, but it only allows us

to have half hour frequency in the peak.

We're looking to increase that to 50% double tracking, add an infill

station, add a new locomotive facility or rail car facility.

And that'll give you notice to 15 minute service.

Open the door to Sunday service.

And so yeah, it's, itit really is.

It would be a generational project.

So we're out there just letting know, you know, and letting our delegation know.

The House Senate committees know, you know, what we're doing and

what we hope that they'll partner with us when it comes to funding.

That's great.

So Front Runner is your rail service, your heavy rail, right?

Yeah, it's our heavy rail commuter service.

It essentially, is runs parallel to interstate 15, which is, you

know, so we're the transit lifeline.

The Interstate 15 is the, you know, is the highway lifeline and but it's

really hitting capacity I-15 and having Front Runner, you know, be an option

for folks makes a big difference.

You know, the people think, oh, well this gets people on transit.

That's a great thing.

Well, yeah, it does.

It also pulls cars off the road because, you know, those freight trucks, they

only have one direction and then they go, they can't, they can't use our system.

So unless traffic going I-15 the easier it's for those, you know,

those trucks to get through.

Absolutely.

Tell us about your whole system, Jay.

I mean, that's only one part of it.

You run an amazing, I got to ride it a great commuter rail service.

What else do you have there?

We have a total 131 miles of rail.

So you have the commuter rail.

We have three light rail lines that are part of the Trax network.

We have a street car line, which is two miles that runs into the Sugar House area.

A huge fixed bus route network, three Bus Rapid Transits, one of

which is coming online in April a year early, I have to add.

So really exciting.

And, you know, a really great micro transit program for us is known as

our innovative mobility work and, you know, van pool, paratransit.

I mean, you got it.

We're the true multimodal system.

Yeah, absolutely.

What's your annual budget for all that?

So our operating budget is you know, when we're actually just finishing that now

with our, with our trustees, it's gonna come in around 480 plus million a year.

A lot of that, as we get through not only, obviously we get farebox,

but you know, well funded for sales tax revenue from the counties and

the municipalities that support us.

That's great.

Yeah.

And that, since you mentioned that, let's talk about the service area.

You're not just serving Salt Lake City, the capital.

Oh yeah.

You're serving a whole area, right?

Yeah.

No, it's 77 municipalities, six counties.

It's a lot.

It challenges any government relations professional.

So, you know, uh, you know, because look, the good thing is

the good thing is our, the demand for our system is really strong.

People want more and more and more service.

So, uh, you know, the, you know, getting to make sure that that happens is,

you know, obviously, you know, funding is part of that, uh, making sure we

have the, the personnel to do it.

Uh, I always say, you know, you build that highway.

Well, they've got the built-in drivers, you know, that are in those vehicles.

You know, you add transit, that's, that's more operators

and more maintenance people.

But yeah, very large service area.

Maybe one of, actually the largest in the country we're, we're, we're

really a highly urbanized area here.

People think of Utah is expansive, but so much of the state is federally

or state owned because it's, you know, it's wide open space that where

people live is very densely populated.

And I'm sure you saw that when you got here.

I mean, you, if you were to come to Utah, uh, a century ago, you were like, wow, I

don't even recognize the place anymore.

So yeah, it's, uh, yeah, so that, that's the need for transit 'cause

so a lot of young people are here too, and they use transit, you know.

Um, our core ridership is 18 to 34.

Oh, wow.

That's really good, Jay.

Yeah,

yeah,

yeah.

When we were there, uh, we stayed up at the Inn on the Hill, which was,

uh, just down from your state capitol.

That's a phenomenal looking building too.

I mean, we got to tour it, uh, inside.

And, um, the, the weather, the Christmas, we were there in November.

Uh, I mean, you have some of the best snow in the country.

I know it's snowing today there, uh, where people go and ski.

And the streets are clean.

It's, uh, it's a, it's a wonderful area, Jay.

I mean, I was super impressed.

No, and you just mentioned the skiing, which is a, a service

that I didn't even talk about.

You know, we have a seasonal service on top of that 12 month service that's

bringing people up to, to all the resorts.

You know, the, the canyons in Salt Lake County as well

as north and south of there.

Yeah, yeah.

What's that called?

The snow bus.

It's our ski bus service.

Yeah, ski bus.

Ski bus.

Yeah.

We were actually ready to roll it out and uh, the snow wasn't cooperating, but,

uh, I think everybody's very happy to see it today, so, we'll, we'll get that

ski service up and running right now.

So,

yeah, because some of those roads are windy.

We drove up them and one of them is like the most avalanche prone road

in the, in the country or something.

Yeah.

No, and that's, it's a big part of our work with the Utah

Department of Transportation.

You know, as that season goes along, that those avalanche, uh,

threats, uh, you know, come up.

And so we're, we're, our operating team is working with them, working with

those resorts all the time to make sure that when we're going up and down those

mountains, it's, uh, it's safe to do so.

It's still, uh, you know, you need experienced operators

to do that kind of work.

These are narrow roads that, to your point, are very windy.

And, uh, these are 40 foot buses.

And our safety record is, is tremendous.

So, um, but it's because of the effort we put in with, uh, with all our partners.

Yeah, Gavin took us up to a couple of the ski, uh, operations, you know, Alta

and the, uh, the other place, Snow Basin, where I think the Olympics are gonna be.

And it was, um, they are very pro, ride the bus, you know, uh, you

know, take the, take the ski bus up here, don't try to park your cars.

And sometimes they, uh.

The, the lineup of cars just to get in there can be extensive.

No, to get into canyons.

I mean, because it's really one lane in, one lane out.

It, it's, uh, you know, uh, once ski season starts, it's really, really tough.

I mean, I, and it's 'cause everybody wants to come up there in the peaks, right?

They wanna come up in the peak.

They wanna leave in the peak, right?

Uh, you know, for those who go up super early or those who wait till the midday,

they're probably a little bit happier.

They don't have to wait as much traffic.

But, you know, and there's lots fill up there as well.

A lot of the, uh, resorts have gone to, scheduled parking.

Uh, because you know, otherwise you get people waiting outside to get

in and they can't even get a space.

Hey, I want to congratulate you on your APTA award this year.

Tell us about that.

Yeah, public transportation system, uh, of the year for, for our class.

Really exciting.

it means, you know, it means a lot to me, you know, coming here

and being here for four years.

It means so much to, to our employees.

We're, we're treating the APTA Award as the Stanley Cup.

It, it's making its way around all the facilities so everybody can

take a picture with, uh, with it.

Because that's, that's who does the work every day.

You know, it's, it's our, it's our operating team.

It's all the people that support that operating team on the administrative side.

And, uh, you know, I remember when I first got back from, um, Boston where we,

where we were, we announced as the winner.

Uh, I literally got off the plane, got in my car, went to uh, headquarters, and

just took it around headquarters posing with everybody, with a, with a picture.

'cause I just, you know, it's just that moment where you

wanna celebrate your success.

And, uh, you know, I mean, look, our customers appreciate what we do every

day, but it's, when you get that external recognition, it makes you feel

really good about what you're doing.

Absolutely.

Well, and it's in recognition of a lot of great stuff.

I mean, you've had two successful BRTs, you've really rebounded from the pandemic.

You've had a million service miles, uh, in, in April, 2025.

Your new track station was built in a year.

I mean, tell us some about all that.

You've had some great accomplishments over the last year or so.

Just to start from the ridership that we had last year, I mean,

we're calculating our, you know, to get to 40 and a half million.

the per capita usage is just as high as any other major transit system out there.

Uh, given the size of our state, to be able to build out yet another BRT, OGX

now is in its second year, all electric.

You know, you've, you've won this great APTA award and I mean.

The accomplishments you've had, Jay, are just phenomenal.

You're your two successful BRTs, your rebound in ridership, uh, your million

service miles on April, 2025, change day.

Your new track station, uh, the South Jordan downtown built in a year.

I mean, tell us some about these accomplishments and how you got them done.

it's a testament, uh, to, for, to start with how important

transit is to the region.

You know, you don't, uh, you don't have a lot of state legislators in conservative

states that are transit, transit, transit.

Right.

And we, we have that here.

Uh, so, you know, the funding, the desire, the desires, I said before

for all our communities to, you know, to get more and more in, uh, and, you

know, that just creates successes.

And it also to the project point that you made, Paul.

I think the federal government, the FTA, feel very comfortable

investing in UTA 'cause they know we deliver all the time and they know

they're going to get the ridership.

So it makes them feel very comfortable about, you know, what they're,

you know, the bang for the bucks.

So you mentioned the two BRTs that we have already, you know, Ogden Express

a couple years ago, at first two years, uh, all electric, uh, BRT by the way.

And first two years, a million customers a year.

Again in a state of three and a half million people.

Right.

That, that's really showing a lot.

And then a new one that's coming on, uh, online, that's gonna be done early,

uh, mid Valley Express, gonna connect Front Runner out to West Valley, which is

connecting to Trax our light rail system that's also gonna connect Olympic venues.

Let's go into your background, Jay.

Sure.

You've had an amazing background in public transportation.

You're one of the most prepared CEOs.

You know, you, you, you have a legal background like I do, and you'd

spent some time in law practice privately and then FAA, FTA, Amtrak,

SEPTA, and now Salt Lake City.

Tell us about your background and, and what your interest was that drove

you to all these different positions.

Well, I mean, started with the law career like, like you did Paul,

and, um, and eventually led me to engaging with federal agencies, you

know, from representing employees when I was in a plaintiff's practice.

And that got me to FAA, right?

Actually right after 9/11, which was, it was like, if we were talking about that.

We'd be talking for a couple hours about all the things

that happened right after that.

But that, uh, ultimately I made it, uh, you know, I got a background.

I came up with personnel law, but then I got a background in procurement and

operations and that, you know, led me to the Federal Transit Administration.

And, you know, the beauty of Federal Transit Administration is

you, you know, now you're touching the world that you're funding.

You're there, you're there at ribbon cuttings, you're there on

the street and you see the buses come by, you know, on the train.

So, and that's what gave me the bug.

That gave me the real bug.

and then to your point, I just wanted to get lots of different experiences

in that world, you know, so when I had that opportunity in Amtrak, that was

great to be part of the, you know, the national, the railroad system, and then,

uh, going to SEPTA, major, major carrier going through the pandemic at SEPTA.

Oh my gosh.

Uh, I've seen that, you know, the effects.

Uh, I worked harder during the pandemic than I ever worked in my life.

You know, it was just, uh, just crazy and, but that wound wound me up here and

it's been, uh, it's been a wonderful ride.

And, um, we did talk about the Olympics for a little bit.

I, I wanna dive into that.

You've, you've got, um, Salt Lake City is known for the Olympics.

While we were there, we went and actually visited.

Yeah.

Uh, Gavin took us up to, uh, the snow place where the

skiing is gonna take place.

And we also saw the, um, you know, the cauldron where the,

where the Great Olympic flame was.

And Mitt Romney really came to the nation's know, you know, knowing about

him because he kind of helped come in there and, and helped do that.

Tell us about how UTA is preparing for the Olympics that are coming there

again, the Winter Olympics in 2034.

It seems like a long ways off, but you guys are, you guys are already in

preparation and you've already got a lot already prepared from your previous one.

Right?

Yeah.

Uh, you know, by the way, you mentioned Mitt Romney, he actually directed traffic

at one point in his Olympic games.

That's how on ground

Talk about doing what has to be done, huh?

Yeah.

Yeah.

There's a lot of stories about that.

No.

You know, a wonderful thing about our preparation for the Olympic Games is

everything that we had in the plans for what we'd like to do for this games.

You know, it was, it was already there.

Right.

It was, it existed.

There's one thing that we said, oh, we gotta do this in order to get the games.

So that, that was the one thing that we talked about with the IOC.

We're ready today.

We're ready today.

There were projects that we're gonna do that could help, but we're

ready to make it happen today.

And they came out and they saw our system.

They were very impressed with it.

Uh, it's gonna be very different Olympics than the last one because last

one was mostly park and ride, right?

We, we had like just a little bit of rail that was just starting a building

that was no commuter rail line that was running in the spine of the system.

So we're, we're super.

You know, it's gonna be fantastic that, that Front Runner 2X project

that I talked about, you know, getting, getting that kind of service, getting

into 15 minute service, it's, it's all those are gonna be game changers.

All those gonna be important.

And so they're all, they're all on the hopper right now.

We're, we're hoping to deliver as many as we can by 2034.

But again, if it happened today, Paul, we'd be ready to move people.

I mean, that's amazing.

I've been to several cities lately, including Brisbane and others that are

preparing for the Olympics or big games like, uh, the World Cup coming here, and

they're still in heavy preparation mode.

And to, to have it kind of already done eight years ahead of time or

nine years, that's phenomenal man.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No, I think the whole community, I mean, all the venues are, are there all

the, all the hotel space needed for it.

I think they feel, you know, that doesn't mean that we don't have a lot of planning

to go over the, the, the years ahead.

Uh, but it's nice to have, you already built all those pieces of

infrastructure that are gonna be needed to drive the Olympics forward.

Next year I'm hoping to do a documentary on, um.

called, What's Wrong with Transit America?

Why less than 5% of Americans ride transit regularly.

Uh, but one thing that's become clear as we've done research

for this is that people do ride transit during big events, right?

Yeah.

Whether it's the Super Bowl, the World Cup, or the Olympics.

I mean, that's where really, we shine and we get a lot of people kind of trying

it or testing it during those times.

I'll tell you.

Here's my, here's my solution to what you're talking about.

You know, get, uh, you have a transit system.

Make sure every major university in your area, including even the school districts,

have passes for your transit system.

Get those fare agreements down.

Get 'em writing on transit, because if they write on transit when they're

kids or when they're a university students, they will stay on transit.

That's the beauty.

They, they, that university population has driven our ridership forward.

They,

is that right?

And they, yeah.

They, they take it.

I mean, our number is going up to the University of Utah to BYU.

I mean that Bus Rapid Transit I talked about before down in the Provo area

uh, uh, UVX that connects, uh, the Utah Valley University and BYU to, uh, two

separate locations to Front Runner.

I mean, you know, uh, it's, that's, that's how you get people riding transit is,

you know, get 'em used to, to doing it.

Uh, and much easier to get the young person to get used to riding transit and

continue to do that over their lifetime than trying to get somebody that as

mature as you and me to convert over.

Yeah.

Uh, to, to transit.

You're gonna be, you're gonna be a lot easier to do that.

That's interesting.

Yeah.

Let's talk about the economic impact.

The value that transit in general has.

I mean, we know that we're talking about how people ride for events,

but the day-to-day usage of transit, particularly there, I mean, how

many jobs do you have with that you say are supported by what you do?

Yeah, we, we create, create, uh, directly or indirectly to 79,000 jobs just by

having our system out there, really just by the operations of the system.

Yeah, and I, I think you're raising a really good point, Paul.

You know, we're, we're, we're transit geeks, right?

We've been around transit for a while.

We're turned on by mobility, we're turned on by accessibility.

Um, but there are a lot of people who are on the investment side,

you know, in, in those state houses or even in local electeds.

They, they want to see what's the economic return.

Yes.

And, and I think that we as an industry are really focused on that now.

And so we spend a lot of time doing it here.

You know, how much, how much do we return to the state treasury?

How much, just on a basic, you know, you know, $1 invested return, do

you get, uh, it's important because.

I, I told you before, we have a $483 million operating budget.

Right.

Uh, what's that returning, you know?

Yeah.

Because if it's, if it's in multiples, you know, and we have it as, as,

uh, o over a multiple of five, that's a lot back to the community.

So we have a two mile of our 131 miles of rail.

We have a two mile streetcar line into the Sugar House district here.

Uh, in Salt Lake City.

It costs about $60 million to build.

That's a big investment, right?

The University of Utah did a study, $2 billion in economic return.

Over, you know, over that time period, in fact,

from a $60 million investment.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I would love to send you a picture.

I'm sure we can arrange to have that.

It shows what that area looked like 10 years ago when it looks like now, like

literally just a freight over, it's the industrial desert turned into this,

you know, like developed Mecca, right?

And that's what transit does it.

It makes a big difference whether it's creating jobs, whether it's just moving

goods and services in a much easier fashion because you're pulling people off

of those roads and putting 'em on transit.

It's, um, it, it, it creates so much for the community as well as also,

you know, the cost of cost avoidance.

You know, that's less wear and tear on the highways, less wear and tear on

your cars, you know, that's, uh, but you gotta calculate those numbers 'cause

that's what the investors care about.

With that.

We don't pay an earnings per share.

Right.

Right.

We pay in return.

Right.

And we're no different than, than fire and police and all the other

critical infrastructure in that way.

Let me walk you through some of the numbers.

I've, I've found when I did some research here and tell me if these numbers sound

right, I saw that $9.6 billion more in goods and services generated by the state

of Utah due the time and mileage savings.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's an incredible number.

You know, again, it, it's, you know, it's the.

That's what I call getting those, those freight trucks

through quick, quicker, right.

That's the simplest, you know, you pull people off onto transit and

the trucks can't go on transit.

So, you know, uh, you know, so that's, that's the way to make it happen.

So it's, it's a huge number, but, uh, it, it's, it's part of my little

game, Paul, where I would love to turn off the transit system for a

week and everybody would get it.

They would get it immediately

Absence makes the hard grow fonder exactly $377 million in tax revenue flowing back

to local, state and federal coffers.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And you know what the, the value of that statistic, Paul, is

that if you never ride transit.

Or, or if you're an area that doesn't have transit, but you're

still in the same state, you're still getting a benefit from it.

It's going back to the treasury that's, that's helping state parks, that's

helping, you know, subsidy programs for, for people all around state

agriculture, you know, so it's, it's all that, all that is circular, right?

And so even again, if, even if you're not part of a place that has transit,

but you're part of a state that's benefiting from transit, you're

gonna find that money back to you.

The last number that I find fantastic is the $500, 500% ROI.

$1 invested in UTA generates $5.11 in economic return.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I don't think, and UTA is not, um, you know, we're not the exception there.

I mean, that's, I think that's transit across the country.

We've seen that number before.

But again, it helps, helps our, our agency justify, you know, its budget.

Right.

You know, not only are we employing all these people, so there's

an economic benefit to that.

Uh, but you know, we're that every, every dollar that's coming into our,

our agency is returning in multiples.

Jay, one last question.

I wanted to, uh, circle back on the Olympic preparation, um,

'cause I forgot about this one.

Aren't you guys working with Milan and LA to help prepare some.

Yeah, no, I mean, you know, uh, I mean, LA's getting ready for the 28th summer

Olympics, so they're already looking to a lot of agencies around the country.

Not only, you know, for personnel support, for vehicle support,

because they're not gonna have enough vehicles run by themselves.

You know, nor, nor did we in 2002, we, we, we got both.

Rail and bus, uh, buses that came in.

Uh, so, you know, so we're working with the LA Metro team

and the LA 28 organization.

And then, um, our, um, our Olympic organizing, um, uh, committee

is going to go participate in observer program in Milan.

So there's a couple of us that are going out there.

Look at mountain operations, and I would love to tell you it's a vacation,

but it is anything but I, I, I really.

Got like the itinerary, uh, uh, if I can sneak off to one

hockey game, I'll be lucky.

So, yeah, it's gonna be very busy, but we'll get a lot out of it,

you know, so we're, we're excited.

Absolutely excited about being

You will, I just got back from there.

As you know, I was in Milan, uh, covering for our Transit Unplugged TV show, which

is live now, uh, on YouTube for people.

And we got to ride their transit.

I went to the airport riding their, you know, unmanned, uh, high speed underground

metro system and show people okay.

Yeah.

When you get to the airport, come right here to this location and

go downstairs, uh, and get on the train and take it to there.

I mean, uh, they've got it.

They're, they're ready.

I mean, it's right happening.

And that was my request.

Uh, out of the, you know, the organizing committee was like,

you know, what do you want to see?

As, you know, the executive director, my chief operations officer will be there.

We want to, we, we wanna be in front of that transit agency.

Agency, excuse me, as much as possible.

Right.

We want to be there, uh, because we wanna learn as much as we can from

them as we get ready for our own.

Yeah.

So that is the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Right.

That'll be 26, uh, flying out on February 1st.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's great, man.

Well, this is good.

Uh, for those of you who have listened to the podcast today and

wanna actually see what Jay's been talking about, we're you're gonna

have the opportunity to do so.

This is, um, a podcast which goes along with our upcoming television show.

Transit Unplugged TV featuring Salt Lake City and the, um, Utah Transit

Authority that'll air in February, 2025 on YouTube, on the Transportation

Channel, on Apple TV, and a bunch of other places where we're now streaming.

Uh, look up Transit Unplugged TV.

You'll be able to see where the, that avalanche road Jay talked about.

You'll be able to see, uh, that ride the transit and meet some

of the leaders of his agency.

By the way, Jay, you've got some great leaders that we

were able to interview there.

Oh my gosh.

It's such a great team and their commitment.

I, I, you know, I think when you go to a transit agency and you

can read a little bit of the tea leaves, you can get a sense, I.

The commitment here to customer service every day is, and, and, and,

and moving people is tremendous.

I, I do it this way.

I, you know, I've been around transit long enough that I've

been in a lot of boardrooms.

I, the, the amount of positive.

Positive public comment is unbelievable here.

It's really, I like

I heard about that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You go in, I mean, look, there are people, or you know, at any, any world, you know,

you're, you're gonna have people that, uh, that are upset about something or detract.

But we get such strong support from the community.

We, we get these constituent reports in.

So many people are really happy with what they're doing, and they take the time to

tell you it's, that's, it's even better.

Right.

So, wonderful.

Yeah.

That's great.

The other thing I was gonna mention was the last thing that people could

see when they watch it is in your shop.

We went down and there's an amazing, uh, bus shop.

You've got a new facility there, uh, a newer facility.

And, uh, the underground pits are one big room.

Yeah.

And, uh, I've never seen that before.

I mean, that was pretty phenomenal.

Yeah, that's, uh, you know, that's our depot district new, new bus facility

as part of our Salt Lake service unit.

Yeah.

That's great.

And you know, one thing I hope you saw down there as well, is

our rollout of our strategic plan.

Oh.

Which is all, you know, all designed, you know, to, to, uh, push it as far

forward to the frontline as we can.

Even though even our mission statement "We Move You" was designed to, you

know, so that every single person and they do knows what our mission is.

Right?

And it's a bit interpretive too.

I like to think as we as, it's not just we at UTA, but it's we, our

communities, it's we, you know, our, our elected leaders, everybody together,

working together and make this happen.

So, no, I think, uh, I think when you go out in our organization, you see.

A, a, um, a unified feel, uh, which is what I preached from day one here,

which is let's, let's always think of ourselves in a 1400 square mile

service area, this huge service area as one UTA one UTA all the time.

Love it.

Jay, thanks so much for sharing with us some of the amazing

work you're doing there at UTA.

We wish you the very best as you head into, uh, the new year.

Yeah, Paul, thanks so much for having me again.

I, I really appreciate it and thanks for getting me, you know,

allowing me to probe about my agency.

Love it.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Transit Unplugged, the world's

number one transit executive podcast.

I'm Julie Gates, executive producer of the podcast.

Many thanks to the team that makes this show happen.

Host and producer Paul Comfort, producer Chris O'Keeffe, editor

Patrick Emile, associate producer Cyndi Raskin, and consultants Dan Meisner

and Jonas Woos at Bumper Transit.

Transit Unplugged is being brought to you by Modaxo.

Passionate about moving the world's people.

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