The Sun Tran bus arrives early before its 10 a.m. departure. This stop is right next to campus and has several routes that cycle back about every 40 minutes. Trey Urban | Sun News Daily
There are plenty of cheap and even free transportation options available for Dixie State University students.
With seven different routes that go around town and a couple that go to Washington, the SunTran buses are a great option for students to get to and from DSU campus.
DSU has a deal with SunTran and the city of St. George that provides a bus pass for all students, faculty and staff. DSU pays for a bus pass for students. Students are then given unlimited free transportation through SunTran. All that is required is that students have their student ID with them.
Paul Morris, vice president of administrative affairs, said the small size of the campus doesn’t warrant its own shuttle system. Morris said a shuttle bus on campus would frankly take more time than walking, riding a bike or riding a scooter.
Morris said the Spin Scooter collaboration isn’t done directly through DSU administration, it is done through the city. However, he and others on DSU’s President’s Cabinet still encourage the use of personal transportation and the use of Spin Scooters on campus.
Morris explained this deal with SunTran is the cheapest option for DSU students.
“The state of Utah doesn’t pay for shuttle operations, so in order to pay for these very costly services it would be done through a fee towards faculty, staff and students,” Morris said.
According to Morris, there are plenty of cheap options that ultimately save money for everyone involved.
Mike Cardon, a representative for the SunTran, said he has a great working relationship with DSU.
“We have DSU employees and students ride our buses every day, and honestly it’s quite a large number,” Cardon said.
Cameron Cutler, St. George public works director, was able to offer insight on the matter from the city’s perspective.
Cutler and the city of St. George are hoping to expand to more potential SunTran routes stemming from the St. George hub.
Nothing is official yet, but Cutler and the city are in the process of approving a new route that would go all the way to Zion’s National Park. This new route would travel on I-15 with new, faster and eco-friendly shuttles. This new route potentially includes stops in Washington, La Verkin and Hurricane.
This potential route has plenty of hurdles to clear before action can be taken. Cutler is shooting for the route to be up and running in the next four to five years.
Cutler says this new route would take new buses, a new maintenance building, a hydrogen fuel-cell fueling station and more money.
According to Cutler, federal funding is based on the size of the urbanized area of the city. St. George is frankly just not that large, so it makes it harder to get the much-needed funding for projects like this.
Besides the Zion project, Cutler also hopes to create more bus routes in Washington county. According to Cutler, the city of Washington is very interested in having more routes run through the city. This project would either require more doubled-up routes or more buses. Cutler has no interest in worrying about this potential route until the Zion route is approved and in production.
No contact has been made with Cutler and DSU regarding student passes with this new route.
“I have not finalized the cost of this new route yet, but it will definitely cost more,” Cutler said. “Because of how long of a route it is, I know it’s going to be more money than a regular St. George route.”
Cutler predicts the cost of a single ride on this route would be $6 to $8, considerably more than the cost of rides on the routes offered now.
A good working relationship in the past that has financially benefited both sides leads Cutler to believe a deal could potentially be made once things are finalized.
