The Whatcom Transportation Authority (WTA) is the

public transit Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typic ...

authority of

Whatcom County Whatcom County is a county located in the northwestern corner of the U.S. state of Washington, bordered by the Canadian Lower Mainland (the Metro Vancouver and Fraser Valley Regional Districts of British Columbia) to the north, Okanogan ...

in northwestern

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

, based in the city of Bellingham. It provides bus service on 31 fixed routes, including branded "GO Lines" with 15-minute frequencies on weekdays, to cities in its service area. In addition to bus service, the WTA offers

paratransit Paratransit is the term used in North America, also known by other names such as community transport ( UK) for transportation services that supplement fixed-route mass transit by providing individualized rides without fixed routes or timetables. ...

service and a

vanpool Vanpools or Vanpooling is an element of the transit system that allow groups of people to share the ride similar to a carpool, but on a larger scale with concurrent savings in fuel and vehicle operating costs and thus usually a lower cost to the ...

programs. The WTA is funded by a 0.6% sales tax within the Whatcom County

public transportation benefit area A public transportation benefit area, abbreviated as PTBA, is a type of public-benefit corporation for public transit operators in the U.S. state of Washington. Description Public transportation benefit areas are defined by Revised Code of Washin ...

(PTBA) and grants from the state and federal governments. Service began on January 1, 1984, using equipment bought from the Bellingham municipal transit system after a countywide authority was established a year earlier. The WTA carried 5 million total riders on fixed bus routes in 2014, averaging out to 17,000 weekday boardings.

History

The Whatcom Transportation Authority was created in 1983 and service in western

, including the cities of Bellingham, Ferndale and Lynden, began on January 1, 1984. The city of Bellingham began operating its own municipal transit system in 1971 by taking over a failing private operator, funding it with a 0.3% sales tax within the city beginning in 1975. The system was absorbed into the new countywide

, which adopted the same sales tax rate in 1983.

Services

Bus routes

GO Lines

The "GO Lines" are four corridors where local service combines for 15-minute headways on weekdays and are branded with a specific color by the WTA beginning in 2005. *Blue Line (routes 107, 108 and 190): Bellingham Station to Sehome Village, via

Western Washington University Western Washington University (WWU or Western) is a public university in Bellingham, Washington. The northernmost university in the contiguous United States, WWU was founded in 1893 as the state-funded New Whatcom Normal School, succeeding a pri ...

*Green Line (route 232): Bellingham Station to Cordata Station and

Whatcom Community College Whatcom Community College (WCC or Whatcom) is a public community college in Bellingham, Washington, in Whatcom County. Established in 1967, Whatcom has been accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities since 1976. Academi ...

*Gold Line (route 331): Bellingham Station to Cordata Station and

, via

Bellis Fair Mall Bellis Fair is an enclosed shopping mall in Bellingham, Washington, United States. Opened on August 4, 1988, it features JCPenney, Kohl's, Macy's, Macy's, Macy's Home Store, Dick's Sporting Goods, DSW, Inc., DSW, H&M, Forever 21, Ashley Furniture ...

and Roosevelt *Plum Line (routes 512, 525, 533 and 540): Bellingham Station to Lakeway Drive; originally added in 2008, cut in 2010, and re-instated in 2017. A fifth GO Line, the Red Line from Bellingham Station to the

Fairhaven Transportation Center Fairhaven Station, also called Bellingham, is a train station serving Amtrak's '' Cascades'' route, as well as a bus station serving Greyhound Lines and local Whatcom Transportation Authority buses, in Bellingham, Washington, United States. Bui ...

, was removed in March 2017.

County Connector

WTA Route 80X, known as the County Connector, is an inter-county route operated by the WTA and

Skagit Transit Skagit Transit is a public transit system in Skagit County, Washington, US. It operates 17 bus routes, as well as paratransit and vanpool services across the entire county. The agency was founded in 1993 and is funded by a 0.4 percent local sale ...

that makes 9 daily roundtrips on weekdays and 5 daily roundtrips on Saturdays and Sundays between Bellingham Station and Skagit Station in

Mount Vernon Mount Vernon is an American landmark and former plantation of Founding Father, commander of the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War, and the first president of the United States George Washington and his wife, Martha. The estate is on ...

, with intermediate stops at

park and ride A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, rail system ( ...

s along

Interstate 5 Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific coast of the contiguous U.S. from Mexico to Canada. It travels through the states of Californi ...

. There is also a

shuttle bus A shuttle bus is a bus that travels a shorter route in comparison to most bus routes. Typically, shuttle buses travel in both directions between two points. Shuttle buses are designed to transport large groups of people who are all travellin ...

that connects Route 80X to

with 3 weekday roundtrips. The shuttle bus 80S also takes students from Western to Lincoln Creek Park and Ride so they can transfer to the 80X to Mount Vernon. Students can show the bus driver their student ID and board the bus for free on both WTA buses and Skagit Transit buses.

Fleet

The WTA operates a fleet of 64 full-size buses, 52

vehicles, and 35

vans. , their entire bus fleet consist of

Gillig Low Floor The Gillig Low Floor (originally named Gillig H2000LF and also nicknamed Gillig Advantage) is a transit bus manufactured by the Gillig Corporation. The second low-floor bus introduced in the United States (after the New Flyer LF), the Low Floor ...

buses that seat 32 to 40 passengers. Eight units ordered in 2012 are diesel-electric hybrids.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Bus transportation in Washington (state) Transportation in Whatcom County, Washington Transit agencies in Washington (state)