Key Findings

1. Unlike most state transit agencies, total ridership on Skagit Transit increased 13.6 percent between 2011 and 2019, with ridership peaking in 2014 at well over a million riders.

2. Skagit Transit officials reduced administrative costs as a percentage of their operating expenses from 38 percent to 19 percent between 2011 and 2019. Total operating expenses increased across the same time period.

3. From 2015 to 2019, Skagit Transit officials increased both service and operating expenses only to serve 35 percent fewer passenger miles per revenue mile.

4. Fares paid by passengers make up only between 6 and 8 percent of total revenue.

5. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, total ridership on Skagit Transit decreased by 56 percent from 2019 to 2020.

6. Total ridership for the first half of 2021 is at 38 percent of where it was in 2019, pre-pandemic.

7. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, Skagit Transit should re-evaluate PAS planning documents, projections and cost-benefit analyses, streamline costs, contract out service, and pursue innovative partnerships to improve service efficiency.

Introduction

Washington Policy Center, an independent public policy think tank, provides key facts and research about transit agencies across Washington state. This Policy Brief contains new research about Skagit Transit.

Skagit Transit was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Burlington, Washington. The agency is governed by a 10-member board of directors composed of local elected officials and one non-voting labor representative. While it originally operated fare-free, Skagit Transit began charging a 50-cent fare in 2001. Today, the standard fare for local routes is $1.00. 

Skagit Transit operates in a Public Transportation Benefit Authority (PTBA), a special taxing district of approximately 750 square miles, providing public transportation services in northern and western Skagit County, from Anacortes in the west to Marblemount in the east. This includes parts of the 10th, 39th, and 40th legislative districts and parts of the 1st and 2nd congressional districts. As of 2020, the total population of Skagit Transit’s PTBA is estimated at 116,627 people.

Services consist of fixed-route local buses, demand response (paratransit), commuter buses and vanpool services in and around Skagit County cities including Mount Vernon, Burlington, Anacortes, La Conner, and Sedro-Woolley. Additionally, Skagit Transit works with Island Transit and Whatcom Transit Authority to provide passenger connections between Whidbey Island and Bellingham respectively. The transit agency also operates a route from Burlington to Everett Station in Snohomish County through Mount Vernon.

The majority of Skagit Transit’s funding (over 83 percent in 2019) comes from the 0.4 percent sales tax that the agency imposes on people living in the Skagit County PTBA. Originally a 0.2 percent sales tax enacted in 1993, an additional 0.2 percent was approved in 2008. According to WSDOT’s website, “Voters in unincorporated Shelter Bay, Burlington Country Club, North and Northwest Skagit County, and Big Lake have also been annexed into the PTBA after successful voter initiatives to expand Skagit Transit’s service area.”

Read the full Policy Brief here.