Intercity Transit is a
public transportation agency organized as a
municipal corporation
Municipal corporation is the legal term for a local governing body, including (but not necessarily limited to) cities, counties, towns, townships, charter townships, villages, and boroughs. The term can also be used to describe municipally o ...
in
Thurston County, Washington
Thurston County is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its population was 294,793. The county seat is Olympia, Washington, Olympia, the ...
, United States. It serves
Lacey,
Olympia,
Tumwater, and
Yelm and
Lakewood: an area of approximately . It operates 19 bus routes, the Dial-A-Lift door-to-door service, 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 ...
program, and specialized van programs.
In FY 2024 the system had an annual ridership of 4,242,904, or about 11,688 daily boardings.
Intercity Transit previously maintained a free shuttle route called Dash, which provided service between the Capitol Campus and downtown Olympia via Capitol Way.
[Dash Shuttle]
/ref> Dash ran every fifteen minutes on weekdays, every ten minutes on weekends, and was close to several public parking lot
A parking lot or car park (British English), also known as a car lot, is a cleared area intended for parking vehicles. The term usually refers to an area dedicated only for parking, with a durable or semi-durable surface. In most jurisdi ...
s. However, this service was retired during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2009, the American Public Transportation Association
The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) is a nonprofit group of approximately 1,500 public and private sector member organizations that promotes and advocates for the interests of the public transportation industry in the United ...
gave Intercity Transit the America's Best Public Transportation System award for the mid-size category.zero-fare
Free public transport, often called fare-free public transit or zero-fare public transport, is public transport which is fully funded by means other than collecting fares from passengers. It may be funded by national, regional or local governme ...
pilot project in January 2020 as part of its service expansion approved in a 2018 ballot measure. The agency also launched a zero-fare express bus route connecting Capital Mall to Lacey in September 2019. The pilot was extended to 2028 amid the COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, which also forced the suspension of the express route and Dash. All of Intercity Transit's fixed route services were suspended on April 13, 2020, and replaced temporarily by an on-demand system with advance reservations limited to only passengers with "essential business" as part of the local response to the pandemic. Limited fixed route service resumed in June alongside the advance reservation system but ridership remained 70percent below its 2019 levels. Intercounty service to Lakewood resumed in June 2021.
Fleet
Intercity Transit operates 77 coaches, 33 Dial-A-Lift vans, and 221 vanpool vans.[Meet the Fleet]
/ref> Intercity Transit purchased six new hybrid electric buses in 2010,
References
{{Puget Sound Transit
Bus transportation in Washington (state)
Sound Transit
Transportation in Thurston County, Washington
Lacey, Washington
Free public transport