ST. GEORGE, Utah — Nearly 15 years in the planning stages, the first public bus from St. George to Zion National Park left Friday morning. With the exception of Sunday, it will operate for the foreseeable future.

Of all the people on one of the first buses from St. George, Megan Sweidan had one of the longest trips, non-stop from Melbourne, Australia.

“I took a bus from San Diego to Zion, like all buses do,” Sweidan said. I think it’s amazing in such a big country.

It takes the Suntrans bus one hour and 25 minutes to go from St. George to Zion and vice versa, with seven stops in between, including Red Cliffs Mall, Hurricane and Virgin before arriving at the Zion shuttle stop in Springdale.

As a transit service, Suntrans pales in comparison to the Utah Transit Authority in Salt Lake City, with the Zion Line being the eighth bus route.

And the planned July opening was delayed by four months because it took time to hire enough drivers.

Cameron Cutler, St. George’s public works director, said two specific groups will be served by the bus.

“The workers, the employees who either live in Hurricane, in St. George, in Washington, or at Virgin who work in Springdale,” Cutler said. “Visitors, we receive millions of visitors to Zion National Park each year.

And that’s an option where they can stay in St. George, Washington, Hurricane, in hotels. They can take this bus and go to Zion National Park without having to worry about a vehicle, or worry about parking in the park.

Barbara Bruno, mayor of Springdale, asked her husband to drive her to St. George just so she could get on one of those first buses.

“We have a lot of traffic coming through the town of Springdale and not stopping and patronizing our businesses,” Bruno said. “They’re going to Zion National Park. So any cars we can take off the road to allow for smoother traffic flow in our city is always a win.

There are also people who live in St. George who don’t often go to the national park in their backyard. Especially driving there to find no parking.

“You don’t have to drive. Don’t worry about these crazy people on the road,” said St. George resident Tanisha Lee. » No road rage allowed, okay? Yeah, sit back and relax.

The project was funded by a $15 million grant from the Utah Department of Transportation and a Washington County sales tax. Of that, $9 million funded a new maintenance facility and five new buses.

This is just one of those projects that came to fruition because people are working together to make this happen,” said UDOT Commission Chairman Naghi Zeenati. “UDOT’s goal is to make every community accessible to the transit system, make roads passable, move people from one corner to another, and connect all communities. For UDOT, it is therefore important that all communities are connected.

“You know savvy travelers travel smart, find the cheapest and most efficient route,” Sweidan said. “It may not be the most efficient, although it takes twice as long if you spend half the price.”

A disabled woman who, on a whim, decided to do something she’s never been able to do because she can’t drive alone. Come out and see the beauty of this place.

Cutler said the future of the St. George-Zion shuttle will depend on its popularity.

“We estimated the low and high numbers to be between 50,000 and 300,000 per year. It depends entirely on how it’s used and how easy it is to get on and off,” Cutler said. “The number of routes we have scheduled today is 10 routes per day, 10 round trips. If it gets used a lot more, we’ll add more.