SALT LAKE CITY — Nearly all of Utah's ski resorts are now open, and visitors looking to hit the slopes will have more options to get to several of them by this weekend.

Sunday marks the Utah Transit Authority's December change day, where it makes adjustments to transit service. Normally, this day marks the return of the agency's ski bus service for the winter, along with a few other adjustments to service along the Wasatch Front, but this year's change day will include a bit more as major construction projects wrap up in Salt Lake City.

The biggest adjustment coming Sunday is that UTA buses will return to the full 200 South corridor through downtown Salt Lake City for the first time since construction began in 2022. Other routes hampered by construction — largely in Sugar House — will also return to full service.

Ski bus service resumes

Some of UTA's seasonal ski bus services have already returned ahead of the schedule change. The agency's 972 and 994 routes to resorts in Big and Little Cottonwood canyons resumed on Nov. 29, but additional services to Alta, called CS1 and CS2, will begin on Sunday.

Route 674 to Powder Mountain returns on Friday, while its 675 and 677 routes to Snowbasin Resort resume on Sunday. Route 880, which serves Sundance Mountain Resort, will return on Dec. 21, even though the resort opened on Wednesday.

Related:

UTA to expand ski service up Little Cottonwood Canyon this season

As ski resorts begin to open across the state, the Utah Transit Authority will resume its regular ski service later this month and will add something slightly new.

Over 200,000 riders used the UTA ski service last season, up almost 10% from the year before. The changes this year reflect efforts to get back to what was once provided before service cuts tied to driver shortages were made in 2022.

"We want to provide the same level of service in the winter as we do all throughout the year, throughout our entire system," UTA spokesman Gavin Gustafson said last month.

200 South reopens

Salt Lake City transportation officials announced late last month that all major construction tied to its 200 South project is now over. The project blended two entities: Dominion Energy — now Enbridge Utah — and Salt Lake City.

Crews dug into the roadway to replace an aging gas pipeline underneath, but that construction also allowed city transportation officials to redesign the road configuration as the roadway was filled back in.

The roadway now includes dedicated bus lanes, improved bike lanes, more crossings and better access for people with disabilities, city officials said. Before the project started, Kyle Cook, a transportation engineer for Salt Lake City's transportation division, called the road a "strategic backbone corridor," which is why the bus lanes were included in the design.

Now that construction is over, UTA's 1, 2, 4, 205, 209, and 220 bus routes will resume service on 200 South through downtown. The biggest impact might be on users of the 2, 205, 209, and 220 routes, which have service out of Salt Lake Central Station. For well over a year, all four routes had been rerouted downtown onto roads like 100 South and South Temple.

The long project also led to many travel headaches and frustrations from downtown businesses, similar to the issues Sugar House businesses endured this year. Both projects were part of a bond residents approved in 2018 to pay for road improvements. Construction tied to the bond will end next year with drastic changes to 200 South, 300 West, 1100 East/Highland Drive and 2100 South by the time the money is all used.

"We have made massive improvements to Salt Lake City streets," Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall told KSL.com last week. "We're still wrapping up construction, but it's a good sign that these projects are nearing their end."

The mayor added that there are plenty of aging streets still in need of repair, which is why she said a new streets bond could land on city ballots again sometime in the future.

Other system changes

Meanwhile, Route 220, which connects to ski bus routes in Sandy, will also resume service on 1100 East/Highland Drive beginning on Sunday. It had been rerouted onto 900 East during long-term construction in Sugar House, but that project has since been completed.

Routes F11 and 223 will also return to normal routing this weekend after additional Salt Lake City construction ended in the Avenues. Meanwhile, UTA officials say Route 47 in the middle of Salt Lake City will begin a detour running on 3600 West, 4100 South and 4000 West.

Bigger changes are on the horizon. UTA is proposing more bus route frequency and service to areas in northern Utah and southwest Salt Lake County. Its new South Jordan Downtown TRAX station will also open in April 2025, stopping outside of the Salt Lake Bees' new Daybreak Field.

Other plans include adding UTA on Demand to a section of Provo, including its airport.

UTA director Jay Fox told KSL.com he believes those changes will help boost ridership further, as it finally reaches pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels. UTA reported 154,261 average weekday boardings in September, making it the agency's busiest month since February 2020 and surpassing several months in 2019.

The agency also expects to reach close to 40 million customers this year.

"We're going to be back to restoring service along a lot of our local routes in addition to expanding service," he said. "It's exciting to see the results of the demand for our service."

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