Kitsap Transit is a

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 ...

agency serving

Kitsap County, Washington Kitsap County is located in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, its population was 275,611. Its county seat is Port Orchard, and its largest city is Bremerton. The county was formed out of King County and Jefferson County o ...

, part of the

Seattle metropolitan area The Seattle metropolitan area is an urban conglomeration in the U.S. state of Washington that comprises Seattle, its surrounding satellites and suburbs. It contains the three most populous counties in the state—King, Snohomish, and Pierce ...

. The system is based in

Bremerton Bremerton is a city in Kitsap County, Washington. The population was 37,729 at the 2010 census and an estimated 41,405 in 2019, making it the largest city on the Kitsap Peninsula. Bremerton is home to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and the Bremer ...

and operates bus service on 40 fixed routes, a foot ferry, 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 ...

system, worker-driver services, and

dial-a-ride Demand-responsive transport (DRT), also known as demand-responsive transit, demand-responsive service,
US National Trans ...

services. The

Kitsap Fast Ferries Kitsap Fast Ferries is a passenger ferry service operating between Seattle and Kitsap County in the U.S. state of Washington. It is funded and operated by Kitsap Transit and began service in July 2017, with a single boat traveling between Seattl ...

are also operated by Kitsap Transit. In , the system had a ridership of , or about per weekday as of .

History

Beginning in 1971, the city of Bremerton operated a municipal transit system that had been bought out from a private company. A countywide

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) was formed in 1978 to explore a transit system for Kitsap County as a whole. A 0.2 percent sales tax was put before voters in May of that year for a countywide system, but was rejected. A second attempt was put on the September 27, 1982 ballot, with a 0.3 percent sales tax and a limited PTBA serving Bremerton, Gorst,

Port Orchard Port Orchard, part of Washington state's Puget Sound, is the strait that separates Bainbridge Island on the east from the Kitsap Peninsula on the west. It extends from Liberty Bay and Agate Pass in the north to Sinclair Inlet and Rich Passage ...

, Poulsbo and Silverdale. The PTBA was approved by 55.6 percent of voters, and service began in January 1983, taking over the Bremerton municipal system. In 1992, Kitsap Transit became the first transit agency in the

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 territori ...

to install a

traffic signal preemption Traffic signal preemption (also called traffic signal prioritisation) is a system that allows the normal operation of traffic lights to be preempted. The most common use of these systems manipulates traffic signals in the path of an emergency vehi ...

system for

bus priority Bus priority or transit signal priority (TSP) is a name for various techniques to improve service and reduce delay for mass transit vehicles at intersections (or junctions) controlled by traffic signals. TSP techniques are most commonly associat ...

, beginning with 40 buses and 42 traffic signals in a year-long trial of the " Opticom" system. Kitsap Transit formed a public-private partnership with Kitsap Ferry Company to operate a

passenger ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...

service between Bremerton and Seattle in 2004, replacing a former

Washington State Ferries Washington State Ferries (WSF) is a government agency that operates automobile and passenger ferry service in the U.S. state of Washington as part of the Washington State Department of Transportation. It runs ten routes serving 20 terminals loc ...

passenger run that was suspended the previous year. The service was suspended in 2007, after voters rejected a sales tax increase to fund the ferry's rising fuel costs. Kitsap Transit, looking to revive the service, placed a 0.3 percent sales tax on the November 2016 ballot to fund fast ferry service, which was passed by voters. The new

service began operation on July 10, 2017, traveling 28 minutes between Bremerton and Seattle. A second fast ferry route, connecting Kingston to Seattle, began operating in November 2018. In 2002, Kitsap Transit purchased Horluck Transportation, the operators of a foot ferry from Bremerton to Port Orchard and Annapolis, for $1.52 million. During a period of declining sales tax revenue following the

Great Recession The Great Recession was a period of marked general decline, i.e. a recession, observed in national economies globally that occurred from late 2007 into 2009. The scale and timing of the recession varied from country to country (see map). At ...

, Kitsap Transit made major service cuts to make up for a budget shortfall. Sunday and holiday service was discontinued in February 2009, low-performing routes were consolidated or eliminated later that year. Fares were raised twice to $2, and employees were laid off. In 2015, Kitsap Transit tested a

double-decker bus A double-decker bus or double-deck bus is a bus that has two storeys or decks. They are used for mass transport in the United Kingdom, the United States, New Zealand, Europe, Asia and also in cities such as Sydney; the best-known example is the ...

from

Alexander Dennis Alexander Dennis is a British bus manufacturing company based in Larbert, Scotland. The largest bus and coach manufacturer in the United Kingdom with a 50% market share in 2019, it has manufacturing plants and partnerships in Canada, China, E ...

on routes serving ferry runs. The agency debuted a new

battery electric bus A battery electric bus is an electric bus that is driven by an electric motor and obtains energy from on-board batteries. Many trolleybuses use batteries as an auxiliary or emergency power source. In 2018, the National Renewable Energy Laborator ...

manufactured by Proterra in April 2018.

Services

Kitsap Transit oversees the operations of these services: * Routed bus service (40 routes; 120 buses) * Foot ferry service (

and Annapolis) * Fast ferry service (

and Kingston to

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

) * ACCESS (Door-to-door/curb-to-curb service for elderly and disabled) * Worker/Driver (Commuter routes operating between various points in Kitsap County and either the

Puget Sound Naval Shipyard Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, officially Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility (PSNS & IMF), is a United States Navy shipyard covering 179 acres (0.7 km2) on Puget Sound at Bremerton, Washington in uninterrupted ...

Naval Submarine Base Bangor Naval Submarine Base Bangor is a former submarine base of the United States Navy that was merged with Naval Station Bremerton into Naval Base Kitsap in 2004. History The Naval Support Base Bangor's naval history began in 1942 when it became a sit ...

. Drivers are full-time employees at the Navy installations who are also employed as part-time Kitsap Transit operators.) * Vanpool * TIP (Transit Incentive Program), a program for employees at federal work sites. * SCOOT (Smart Commuter Option of Today), a carsharing program in the urbanized areas of Kitsap County. Kitsap Transit participates in the

ORCA Card The ORCA card (standing for One Regional Card for All) is a contactless, stored-value smart card system for public transit in the Puget Sound region of Washington, United States. The card is valid on most transit systems in the Seattle metropo ...

program. Kitsap Transit routes connect to Jefferson Transit, Mason Transit Authority,

Pierce Transit Pierce Transit, officially the Pierce County Public Transportation Benefit Area Corporation, is an operator of public transit in Pierce County, Washington. It operates a variety of services, including fixed-route buses, dial-a-ride transportat ...

and the

terminals in

, Bainbridge, Kingston and Southworth.

Administration

Kitsap Transit is overseen by a ten-member

executive board A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

composed of the three county commissioners, the mayor of Bremerton, a Bremerton City Council member, appointed representatives from the cities of Bainbridge Island, Bremerton, Port Orchard, and Poulsbo, an at-large member from the three smaller cities, and a non-voting member representing the agency's labor unions.

Current fleet

References

External links

Official website
{{Puget Sound Transit Bus transportation in Washington (state) County government agencies in Washington (state) Intermodal transportation authorities in Washington (state) Ferry companies based in Washington (state) Transportation in Kitsap County, Washington Transportation in Seattle Sound Transit 1983 establishments in Washington (state)