Fuel Surcharge make no sense, they already have High
Fares and Less Service. Voters Voted for a "Improvement in the Transit System" not the "Destruction of the Bus System. Google: UTA Transit Follies 5 you get more Information.
Salt Lake Transit Rider Union

Memo to UTA: For the vast majority of people, public transportation is simply not as convenient as driving their own car. The way to entice them to patronize your inconvenient service is by being less expensive than driving.

Every time gas gets more expensive, you have an opportunity to capture more customers by being a cheaper alternative......and what do you do? You raise your prices.

At $3.50 a gallon I can travel round trip from Sandy to the U for less than the price of a Trax ticket. And instead of taking me two hours on Trax, I can drive it in 40 minutes. Remind me again why I would want to patronize UTA?

Apparently UTA's overpaid execs have never been to business school where they teach you that a successful business must either be better, cheaper, or faster than the alternative - UTA is none of the 3.

UTA tries to slip this through every time gas prices go up. Remember a couple of years ago when fuel prices were near $3. They increased fares then but didn't feel the need to decrease them when fuel dropped back near $2.

In spite of that drop UTA has increased fares dramatically each year for the past several years including this January effectively a %100 percent increase in the last couple of years. Sure fuel prices have gone up but has the price of maintenance doubled? Has driver pay doubled, Has Executive pay doubled? That may be the real problem.

In New York city a monthly pass is $81 for unlimited use of busses and trains. UTA provides much less service at double the cost.

Here's a tip UTA--save some budget when fuel prices are low.

..but the bus schedules make public transit a non-option for me. For someone that works from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (90% of people), it looks like UTA has gone out of their way to not accommodate a normal work schedule.

For example, Route 820 (South Utah County) doesn't pick up at my stop until 8:19 p.m. Unfortunately, I have to be to work by 8 a.m. Then, to come home, there is a bus that leaves at 3 p.m. and one at 6:30 p.m. Huh? So I either have to leave two hours early from work or stay an hour and a half later. Not to mention the 20 minute walk on both ends to access the bus stop from my home.

Until UTA can provide some useful bus schedules and pick-up points, they will never have a serious ridership, even though it is a good deal compared to driving.