SF. GEORGE, Utah — In the planning stages for nearly 15 years, the first public bus in St. George at Zion National Park left Friday morning. Other than Sundays, it will operate for the foreseeable future.

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

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

It takes one hour and 25 minutes for the Suntrans bus to run 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 Transfer Station 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 scheduled July opening was pushed back four months when it took time to hire enough drivers.

Cameron Cutler, director of public works for St. George, said there are two specific groups that will be served by the bus.

“Workers, employees who live in either Hurricane, St. George, Washington, or Virgin working in Springdale,” Cutler said. “Visitors, we get millions of visitors to Zion National Park every year.

And this is an option where they can stay in St. George, Washington, Hurricane, in hotels. They can take this bus and go to Zion National Park and they don’t have to worry about a vehicle, they don’t have to worry about parking in the park.

Barbara Bruno, the mayor of Springdale, had her husband drive her to St. George just so he could be on one of those first buses.

“We have a lot of traffic that goes through the city of Springdale and it doesn’t stop and patronize our businesses,” Bruno said. “They’re going to Zion National Park. So any car we can get off the road that allows traffic to flow more freely through 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 only to find no parking.

“You don’t have to drive. You don’t have to worry about those crazy people on the road,” said Tanisha Lee, a resident of St. George..” No road rage allowed, OK? Yes, 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.

It’s just one of those projects that came together because people are working together to get it right,” said Naghi Zeenati, UDOT Commission Chair. “UDOT’s goal is to make every community accessible to the transit system, to make the roads passable, to move people from corner to corner, and to connect all communities. So it’s important for UDOT to have all the communities connected.”

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

A disabled woman who at some point decided to do something that she has never been able to do because she can’t drive herself. Come out and see the beauty of this place.

Cutler said the future of the St. George to Zion will come down to how popular it is.

“I have estimated that they are low and high between 50,000 a year and 300,000 a year. It all depends on how well it’s used, how easy it is to jump 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 more, we’ll add more.”