This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

I wanted to write in response to Robert Kirby's recent experience on the TRAX train in Salt Lake City ("TRAX takes a nasty turn when riding with a drunken derelict," March 30.)

Mr. Kirby, please accept my apology for the unpleasant ride you experienced on our system the other day.

We, along with the rest of Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County, are dealing with a difficult homeless issue and drug problems. We do have UTA officers in the downtown area, riding trains at all times. We are not, however, able to be on every train on our system. However, we do have a permanent police substation at the Salt Lake Central Hub with a UTA police officer always assigned; at our police headquarters at Murray Central (5300 South) Station and at the Ogden Intermodal Center. All the other UTA officers are in the system and on the trains.

The downtown TRAX system is within the free fare zone, so passengers are allowed to ride without any fare and UTA officers do not have grounds to remove them unless they are belligerent or excessively offensive. We are in constant contact with all of the municipal law enforcement departments in our service area, working to address these issues and provide a positive experience for our transit customers.

As means of being of assistance to us and the other passengers, I wanted to provide the phone number to our police dispatch that I encourage you to use whenever you feel that your safety is potentially in danger or you experience an uncomfortable situation. The number 801-287-3937 (EYES) calls our police dispatch office, so they can immediately identify the issue and send a UTA police officer to respond. We also have a text line if you wish to send your concern that way. Just text UTATIP and the issue to 274637 to have the dispatchers respond.

Please keep riding our great system and help us by using the dispatch number to identify problems.

Dave Goeres

Chief Safety & Security Officer Utah Transit Authority