The Tillamook County Transportation District (TCTD), branded as The Wave, is a provider of local and

intercity bus An intercity bus service (North American English) or intercity coach service (British English and Commonwealth English), also called a long-distance, express, over-the-road, commercial, long-haul, or highway bus or coach service, is a public tr ...

transportation services in

Tillamook County, Oregon Tillamook County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 27,390. The county seat is Tillamook. The county is named for the Tillamook or Killamook people, a Native American tribe who we ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The district was created by the county, with borders contiguous with those of the county, though it is organizationally independent.

Beginnings

TCTD was created by the Tillamook County Board of Commissioners in 1997, the transportation district's first board of directors was elected in November 1997, and had its first meeting the following month. TCTD was created at the request of the county's Transportation Advisory Committee (Friends of the Wave) one year into a transportation demonstration project sponsored by the

State of Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

. The project, nicknamed "The Wave" early on, had been instituted using two borrowed buses to offer limited local bus service within Tillamook County, and limited intercity service to Hillsboro, Beaverton and

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

. Various studies and growing ridership on the new services suggested that a tax-supported bus system might be viable in the coastal county. Though the transportation district had been established by the county commissioners, it lacked any substantial source of funding beyond that offered by the state for the demonstration project. The newly elected board of directors asked voters to approve a property tax levy of twenty cents per thousand assessed valuation in the spring of 1998. This initial ballot measure failed. The same measure was again put to the voters in November of the same year, however, passing with a margin of over 60% the second time around.

Growth

Once a source of funding had been secured through the voter-approved tax levy, TCTD began work to improve its services. In 1999, a new general manager was hired, and improvements were made in the district's route system. The fare system was redesigned and simplified, making travel on the system more economical for its riders. New vehicles were put into service to replace the aging borrowed buses, and service frequencies were improved. Eventually, service to Portland was streamlined to cut travel times, and connections were improved with

TriMet TriMet, formally known as the Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon, is a public agency that operates mass transit in a region that spans most of the Portland metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Oregon. Created in 1969 ...

services,

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

(at

Union Station A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...

) and

Greyhound Lines Greyhound Lines, Inc. (commonly known as simply Greyhound) operates the largest intercity bus service in North America, including Greyhound Mexico. It also operates charter bus services, Amtrak Thruway services, commuter bus services, and pac ...

to make regional travel more convenient. The changes were greeted with substantial ridership increases, as TCTD provided more and more services to both the north and south portions of Tillamook County, and in the city of Tillamook itself. Dial-A-Ride services, initially provided by volunteer drivers and now supplemented with some paid drivers, made TCTD services available to all areas of the county.

Current service

In September 2011, TCTD began providing public transportation services seven days a week (Sunday through Saturday). TCTD also provides

Intercity bus service An intercity bus service (North American English) or intercity coach service (British English and Commonwealth English), also called a long-distance, express, over-the-road, commercial, long-haul, or highway bus or coach service, is a public tr ...

s to Portland providing two trips seven days a week. TCTD also operates service north from Tillamook County into

Cannon Beach Cannon Beach is a city in Clatsop County, Oregon, United States. Its population was 1,690 at the 2010 census. It is a popular coastal Oregon tourist destination, famous for Haystack Rock, a sea stack that juts out along the coast. In 2013, ''Nati ...

Clatsop County Clatsop County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 41,072. The county seat is Astoria. The county is named for the Clatsop tribe of Native Americans, who lived along the coast of ...

in cooperation with the

Sunset Empire Transportation District The Sunset Empire Transportation District (SETD) provides federally funded rural intercity bus services in Clatsop County, Oregon. Sunset Empire Transportation is also known as 'The Bus'. SETD also provides transit connections for the National Pa ...

. In February 2012, TCTD began providing public transportation service between Tillamook and Lincoln City in cooperation with Lincoln County Transportation Service District.

References

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External links

Tillamook County Transportation District
(official website) Transportation in Tillamook County, Oregon Bus transportation in Oregon Paratransit services in the United States 1997 establishments in Oregon Government agencies established in 1997 Transit agencies in Oregon