Sunday Service Starts for Jefferson Transit
Traveling green has never been easier or, with fare-free service, more affordable.
Starting this Sunday, weekend travel options for the people of Jefferson County will take a leap forward. Catching a bus to the Chimacum Farmers Market on Sunday, shopping in Port Townsend, taking a trip to Seattle and even making connections to Canada will all become possible, seven days a week.
Jefferson Transit, which has nine East Jefferson County routes—all fare-free—is adding Sunday bus service to each of them. Beginning this Sunday, May 3, passengers can travel around Port Townsend and to Quilcene, Brinnon, Chimacum, Port Hadlock, Sequim, Poulsbo and Kingston. The latter two destinations connect riders to buses, ferries and trains to Bainbridge Island, Seattle, Edmonds, Bellingham and British Columbia.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Jefferson County Commissioner Greg Brotherton, chair of the Jefferson Transit Authority Board, said at the board’s April 21 meeting.
The vote was unanimous at that meeting to add Sunday bus service. Along with the fixed routes, dial-a-ride buses will also run seven days a week, noted Jefferson Transit general manager Nicole Gauthier. This is all a pilot program, she said, that will be reconsidered for renewal in December.
To celebrate and educate potential bus riders, Jefferson Transit will have an open house from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday, May 3, at the Haines Place Transit Center, 12 Haines Place across from Safeway.
“There will be cookies,” Gauthier promised, along with new bus schedules and staff on hand to answer questions and talk about how to ride the bus, use the bike racks and interpret a schedule.
Gauthier and her staff began planning last year for the Sunday addition. Using a state Climate Commitment Act grant, they mapped out the costs of the seventh day based on the costs of Saturday service.
“We did make it easier on ourselves by mimicking Saturday,” Gauthier said, noting that every route’s Sunday schedule will be exactly like the Saturday runs.
Linda MacIntyre, chair of the Transit Advisory Group that provides input to the Jefferson Transit board, said the Sunday addition will make it easier for people who live in Seattle and environs to spend a car-free weekend, or longer, on the Olympic Peninsula.
Conversely, people who live in Jefferson County can take the Sequim No. 8 bus to the Sequim Transit Center, connect with Clallam Transit to Port Angeles, and from there, board the M.V. Coho ferry to Victoria, B.C.
For those wanting to take public transportation to mainland Canada, Jefferson Transit’s Kingston bus connects with the Washington State Ferry to Edmonds. From Edmonds, one can take Amtrak north to Bellingham and Vancouver. Amtrak also runs down to Tacoma, Portland, Eugene and points south.
When it comes to Seattle, MacIntyre noted that riders of the Kingston Express can catch the Kitsap Transit fast ferry from Kingston to the Emerald City on Saturdays. On Sundays, travelers can take the state ferry to Edmonds and then catch a bus to Seattle,
“We are over the moon about this,” MacIntyre said of Jefferson Transit’s Sunday options.
The Port Townsend shuttle No. 11 bus, for another example, will depart the Haines Place Transit Center every 20 minutes from 9 a.m. until 8:10 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.
Route and schedule details are found at jeffersontransit.com, and the agency can be reached at 360-385-4777 and custserv@jeffersontransit.com. Transit and mapping mobile apps also have information.
A staff report estimates the yearly cost for Sunday service will total $505,147 for the nine fixed routes, with dial-a-ride adding another $4,511. Money from the state grant of about $900,000 is earmarked for this cost, Gauthier said.
To cover the seven days, “we’re confident we will have enough [drivers],” she added.
“We have some new operators out on the road. We’re continually in a hiring pattern. We just finished training a new class of operators . . . My guess is we’ll be continuing to hire until the end of time. It’s the new normal for us.”
Gauthier acknowledged that the agency is responding to longstanding desires among people who ride the bus, and those who don’t. Jefferson Transit conducted a survey in February and March, and of the 545 people who opined about Sunday service, 90 percent supported it.
Some said “if you operate Sundays, we will ride,” Gauthier added. She’s eager to see whether those would-be passengers do board a transit bus—to go to church, to work, to the grocery store, to Fort Worden for a hike, or farther afield.
There are community members who like the idea of public transit, much as they like public libraries and public schools, Gauthier said. But they don’t see themselves as bus riders because they have cars; they can afford to drive themselves where they need to go.
“How do you change that mindset,” she asked, “especially in a community where a lot of people have the resources to drive?”
Public input and the Transit Advisory Group have helped gauge what could bring more people onto the buses, Gauthier said.
“We’re still working on it. I think we have a long way to go.”
