ISLAND COUNTY: Change continues at Island Transit

Jessie Stensland reports from the Island Transit board of directors meeting of Fri., June 7, 2024 for the Whidbey News-Times.

Island Transit board members continue to reevaluate routes and other operations in the wake of their decision to fire the executive director.

The board members decided to forego the dedicated park route as the agency struggles with bus operator staffing. At the same time, they are hoping to keep the new Sunday service.

In addition, the board decided not to move forward with plans to buy more electric vans as the performance of the current two electric vans was lackluster.

They Said It

Craig Cyr, a Langley council member who is interim executive director, said the leaders still hope to move toward a zero-emission fleet in the future, but he acknowledged the timeline may have to be adjusted.

Cyr explained that the seasonal park route, which runs between the Coupeville ferry dock and Fort Ebey State Park, was a pet project of the former director, but the ridership was extremely low…. He said staffing the parks route meant that the agency has fewer operators for core services…. “In the end, it was an easy decision to re-allocate drivers to higher utilized routes such as our core #1 route between Clinton and Oak Harbor which has seen several runs canceled,” Cyr said. “Other adjustments are under consideration as the Island Transit board matches available driver resources with a route schedule Island Transit can fully support. In this way, we are ‘right sizing’ Island Transit.”

Cyr noted that Sunday service has consistently been the most requested service expansion.

“We will do everything we can to maintain it, but only if the demand is there that can be served by our current driver corps,” he said.

Cyr said the agency is looking at ways to recruit additional bus operators as the current staff members have been working long hours.

Cyr said the decision not to buy additional electric-powered vans is not a result of the leadership change but is a concern the board had been looking into earlier…. Cyr explained that it is a best practice for an agency to first purchase just one or two of new types of vehicles for the fleet to see how they perform before committing to more. In this case, the performance was wanting.

[Island County Commissioner and Island Transit board member Melanie] Bacon said the manufacturer had promised that the vans would run 200 miles on a charge, but it turned out to be less than half of that. In addition, she said the agency doesn’t have the infrastructure yet for a fleet of electric vehicles.