Community Transit

Community Transit (CT) is the public transit authority of Snohomish County, Washington, United States, in the Seattle metropolitan area. It operates local bus, paratransit and vanpool service within Snohomish County, excluding the city of Everett. CT is publicly funded, financed through sales taxes, federal grants, and farebox revenue, with an annual operating budget of $248.6 million . In , the system had a ridership of , or about per weekday as of , placing it third among transit agencies in the Puget Sound region. The city of Everett, which serves as the county seat, is served by Everett Transit, a municipal transit system.

The system, officially the Snohomish County Public Transportation Benefit Area Corporation (SCPTBA), operates a fleet of 257 accessible transit buses, 52 paratransit vehicles, and 333 vanpool vans, maintained at two bus bases in Everett. Service is provided year-round at over 1,600 stops on 33 routes throughout the county public transportation benefit area (PTBA). These include three Swift Bus Rapid Transit lines, commuter routes that connect with Link light rail, and service to regional Sound Transit facilities. CT also operates several Sound Transit Express routes that serve Snohomish County, Downtown Seattle, and the Interstate 405 corridor.

CT began operation as SCPTBA Public Transit on October 4, 1976, four months after voters approved a ballot initiative to establish and fund a new transit system—the third such attempt to create a PTBA. Renamed Community Transit in 1979, the agency expanded service in its first decades of existence, later taking over King County Metro commuter routes to Seattle in 1989 and adding several cities into its PTBA in the 1980s and 1990s. The agency operated commuter service directly to destinations in Seattle until September 2024, shortly after Link light rail was extended to Lynnwood City Center station. CT was the first operator of bus rapid transit in Washington state and introduced " Double Tall" double-decker buses on its commuter routes to Seattle in the early 2010s.

History

Early years (1970s)

Snohomish County established its public transportation benefit area (PTBA), the first in the state, after municipal corporations for public transportation were added to the Revised Code of Washington by the Washington State Legislature in 1975. The PTBA plan for a countywide bus system was approved during a general election on June 1, 1976, funded by a three-tenths increase of the sales tax rate in member cities.

Snohomish County had previously been served by an interurban railway from Everett to Seattle and coach lines operated by private companies under the Puget Sound Power Company, which were later absorbed by Greyhound. Two previous attempts to establish a bus system, under the Snohomish County Transportation Authority (SNOTRAN) in 1974, were rejected by voters from the entirety of Snohomish County. Heavy opposition came from the residents of Everett because of the high sales tax rate and planned absorption of Everett Transit, acquired by the city in 1969, forcing the SCPTBA to exclude Everett in its successful attempt at creating a bus system. SCPTBA Public Transit began operating in the cities of Brier, Edmonds, Lynnwood, Marysville, Mountlake Terrace, Snohomish and Woodway on October 4, 1976, using 18 leased GMC buses on seven routes carrying 6,414 passengers without fares during the first week.

SCPTBA Public Transit, whose service was known colloquially as the "Blue Bus" for its blue livery, carried 951,200 passengers in its first year of service on 15 local routes and 16 commuter express routes to Downtown Seattle and Northgate, contracted through King County Metro as a continuation of service provided by the Metropolitan Transit Corporation to southern Snohomish County before its merger with Seattle Transit System in 1973. The buses ran for 16 hours a day, charging a base fare of 20 cents (equivalent to $ in ). Early on, the busiest local line was Route R14, accounting for 21 percent of system ridership in the first three months, running from the Edmonds waterfront to Lynnwood and the Boeing Everett Factory. The agency acquired its first federal funding from the Urban Mass Transportation Administration for the 1978 fiscal year, to be used on the purchase of 18 new buses as well as bus stop amenities, such as stop signs and shelters.

Growth and contracted service (1980s)

Community Transit was selected as the official name of the agency on June 19, 1979, recommended by Seattle-based public relations firm McConnell Company ahead of the winners of a public contest held by SCPTBA two years prior. CT continued to grow through the end of the decade, annexing the cities of Arlington, Lake Stevens, Monroe, Granite Falls, Mukilteo, Stanwood and Sultan into the PTBA by 1980; the bus system had the largest growth in ridership within the state in 1980, with local routes gaining 68.3 percent more riders and Metro-operated "Cream Buses" to Seattle gaining 21.4 percent more riders. Metro altered their numbering scheme for Snohomish County routes in 1981, creating the 400-series of routes to coincide with the opening of the state's largest park and ride in Lynnwood (which would later become Lynnwood Transit Center). The annexations of outlying communities in northern and eastern Snohomish County and the completion of park and rides in Edmonds and Mountlake Terrace saw ridership rise to over 3 million passengers by 1983.

Community Transit launched its longest commuter route, between Seattle and Stanwood, in October 1987. They took over the remaining Metro commuter routes to Seattle in 1989, after commuter service was subcontracted to American Transportation Enterprises in 1986. The move to a private carrier was opposed by both Metro and the Amalgamated Transit Union, but the introduction of 49 air conditioned coaches by ATE led to a 25 percent increase in ridership by January 1987. Commuter express service via Interstate 405 from CT park and rides in South Snohomish County to the Eastside cities of Bellevue and Redmond began in 1988 and 1990, respectively, while Seattle service was expanded with weekend service in 1990. The agency dedicated its own bus base at Kasch Park in 1985, replacing shared operations with the Edmonds School District and Everett Transit, at a cost of $4.8 million (equivalent to $ in ) that was mostly funded by the Urban Mass Transportation Administration.

1990s and 2000s

Fraud investigation

CT was involved in a criminal investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the mid-1990s of Ed's Transmission, a transmission shop in Everett used by the agency for bus parts. Detectives from the FBI and Snohomish County Sheriff seized records from both parties and began a two-month audit of Community Transit management. The auditors released a report that criticized the management style of Executive Director Ken Graska and his department heads, leading to the former's resignation in December 1993 after nine years at his position. Federal prosecutors accused Ralph Woodall, the 50-year-old co-owner of the shop, of 15 counts of mail fraud after intentionally overbilling for transmission repairs. Community Transit Maintenance Director Michael Lynn resigned after confessing that he had accepted gifts from Woodall in exchange for sending all of CT's transmissions to Ed's Transmissions without going through competitive bidding. A U.S. District Court jury found Woodall guilty of 15 counts of mail fraud in December 1996, with Judge John C. Coughenour sentencing him to 2.5 years in federal prison the following May, along with Ed's Transmission being forced to pay a $825,000 settlement after a civil suit was filed.

Proposed consolidations with Everett Transit

Attempted mergers of Community Transit with Everett Transit have been proposed by the Washington State Legislature and the CT Board since the formation of SNOTRAN in 1974. The relative success of Community Transit in the late 1970s and 1980s prompted the Community Transit Board to propose consolidation with Everett Transit in 1988, though long-term planning under SNOTRAN for both agencies worked under the assumption that there would be no merger by 2000. In 1990, a second proposal was rejected by the Everett City Council after consultants determined that a merger would only save $350,000 per year in deadheading for Community Transit and that both staffs would need to be retained because of the lack of service duplication between the two agencies. Throughout the 1990s, successive legislative bills proposing a merger were passed through the House Transportation Committee, but failed to gain support elsewhere because of successful lobbying from the City of Everett. State voters approved Referendum 49 in November 1998, including state motor-vehicle excise tax revenue for city-run transit in Everett and Yakima. While Everett Transit gained $4.5 million (equivalent to $ in ) in new annual funding, CT was set to lose $1 million (equivalent to $ in ) over the next five years in addition to the $2 million (equivalent to $ in ) used to operate service within Everett annually. The large cuts brought on by the passing of Initiative 695 and subsequent loss of excise tax revenue forced both agencies to consider merging in 2000, with savings of an estimated $1.7 million per year (equivalent to $ in ) according to a study commissioned by Community Transit. As a result of the failed mergers, CT proposed truncating its routes at Everett city limits, but ultimately decided to provide limited-stop service on its routes through Everett to the newly constructed Everett Station in 2002. Community Transit and Everett Transit signed their first partnership agreement in 2007, with Everett helping fund Swift bus rapid transit through its service area and allowing CT to operate the route in exchange for the expansion of ET service into unincorporated areas surrounding Everett. The two agencies further collaborated with Sound Transit and the Washington State Department of Transportation in the construction of the South Everett Freeway Station the following year.

Fleet expansions and new services

In their most recent expansion in 1997, the Snohomish County PTBA annexed the Eastmont and Silver Firs census-designated places between Everett and Mill Creek, as well as the Tulalip Indian Reservation west of Marysville. During the same year, CT awarded its $31.8 million (equivalent to $ in ) commuter service contract to Grosvenor Bus Lines, which would later fold into First Transit, replacing their first subcontractor, Ryder/ATE Management. The agency introduced the first low-floor articulated buses in the United States into its fleet in 1999, purchasing 17 buses from New Flyer to improve accessibility for older and disabled riders. Service improvements throughout the 1990s, including raising service hours to over 11 million, led to ridership peaking at 8.8 million by the end of the decade and the agency's 100 millionth rider being celebrated in April 2000. The passage of Initiative 695 in 1999, which capped the state motor-vehicle excise tax at $30, forced transit agencies throughout the state to cut service in anticipation of lower revenue. Facing the loss of $18 million (equivalent to $ in ), or 30 percent of its annual operating budget, Community Transit eliminated all weekend service and increased fares on its routes in February 2000. With the service cuts, CT began its VanGO program to donate its retired paratransit minibuses to nonprofit organizations in Snohomish County instead of auctioning them off. Saturday service was reinstated in September 2000, using emergency funds approved by the CT Board, while Sunday service returned in 2001 after the passage of a 0.3 percentage-point tax increase by voters in the PTBA. Further restoration of service came in 2003, with increased frequency and the replacement of 50 buses in the agency's fleet made possible by a budget surplus and the sales tax increase approved in 2002, and in 2005, with increased fares.

Community Transit introduced its current logo and slogan in 2005, replacing an older one in use since 1986 and retaining its blue-and-white color scheme, as part of the roll-out of the first New Flyer Invero buses in the United States. CT began a three-month pilot project in September 2005 that brought Wi-Fi access to buses on its longest route, Route 422 between Stanwood and Seattle, with hopes of attracting customers and remote workers to its routes. The pilot project was deemed a success and expanded into the "Surf and Ride" program on all Route 422 trips in 2006, as well as select trips on Routes 406 and 441 from Edmonds to Seattle and Overlake on the Eastside, respectively; the Wi-Fi program was canceled in 2010, with the removal of equipment in buses brought on by low customer response, budget constraints and the adoption of improved cellular networks that support mobile browsing on smartphones.

CT and First Transit signed their third and most recent contract in 2007, continuing the latter's operation of CT commuter service to Seattle. Community Transit debuted the first double-decker buses in the Puget Sound region during a year-long test in 2007, eventually buying its own fleet of Alexander Dennis Enviro500s for its " Double Tall" fleet to be used on commuter services. A PTBA expansion into the unincorporated areas of Cathcart