WSDOT Report Proposes Expansion Path for Washington’s Intercity Bus Network

Washington State’s often overlooked intercity bus network would be able to provide much more connectivity with modest service upgrades, according to a new report by the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT). Released in late December, the report recommends policymakers consider adding several new routes to meet unmet demand for intercity connections, increase the number of daily round trips on other routes to better connect with other transit options, and expand one existing route to cover new destinations.

While stopping well short of a truly frequent network, the upgrades would represent a jumpstart to a system that has been stagnant for years. The existing statewide intercity bus network is fairly sparse.

Since the late 2000s, WSDOT has been operating a network it calls Travel Washington, which consists of four state-sponsored routes: the Gold, Apple, Grape, and Dungeness Lines. The Dungeness runs from SeaTac to Port Angeles on the Olympia Peninsula, whereas the other three lines operate east of the Cascades. The lines remain a hodgepodge, with none connecting to each other. There’s not even a website where riders can learn about the entire network, and trips have to be booked individually in different places.

The fact that the state can even boast a “network” at all is due to the existence of private carriers, like FlixBus and Bellair, along with Amtrak and its Thruway buses.

None of the four WSDOT-contracted routes run more than twice per day, with the Apple Line, running between Ellensburg and Omak, only operating once daily. This sparse service significantly reduces the potential of using the intercity routes to make additional transit connections, and significant gaps in the statewide network remain.

As part of a required four-year update to the state’s intercity bus plan, WSDOT’s Public Transportation division completed a thorough review of potential upgrades to the existing network. But ultimately, that work will depend on simply maintaining access to the existing cross-state routes operated by private carriers, at a time when many long-distance bus operators are struggling to stay afloat. “For the Travel Washington program to be successful, the connections it makes to other intercity transportation services must be frequent and reliable, which has become more challenging with reductions in service across the national intercity bus network,” the new plan notes.

WSDOT provides state funding to the four Travel Washington routes, but it also awards dollars to maintain service along the routes operated by private carriers, including those operated by Greyhound, which merged with FlixBus in 2021. A $1.3 million grant allowed Northwestern Stage Lines to add a new overnight trip between Spokane, Seattle, and Tacoma in 2023, and additional funding has maintained FlixBus service throughout the state despite increasing costs.

As part of considering recommendations, WSDOT looked at a long list of potential new routes, including a Yakima-to-Portland line and one between the Tri-Cities and Hermiston, Oregon. The report also floated an extension of the existing Dungeness Line beyond Port Angeles further west to Forks. Ultimately these ideas weren’t advanced into the final recommendations. For example, the extension of the Dungeness Line to Forks would turn that route into a 5.5 hour trip, requiring relief drivers for a full round trip, and the final trip of the day wouldn’t reach Forks until after midnight.

While WSDOT did consider two new routes that cross state lines, neither were ultimately moved forward in large part due to the complexity of coordinating with nearby states. And the study didn’t look at any new state-supported options that would bridge the transit divide between the east and west side of the state.

The list of final recommendations includes a primary set of upgrades, along with a second tier of improvements that don’t provide as much benefit as the first tier. The primary recommendations include:

• Adding one additional round trip to the Dungeness Line, allowing more connections for riders in Edmonds and Seattle.
• Adding two additional round trips to the Apple Line between Ellensburg and Omak, via Wenatchee.
• Expanding the existing Gold Line from Kettle Falls to Republic and adding one additional round trip, providing more access to connections in Spokane.
• Creating a new route between the Tri-Cities and Spokane, via Moses Lake, with three daily round trips.
• Creating a new route between the Tri-Cities and Ellensburg, with three daily round trips.

WSDOT included a set of secondary recommendations for a midterm to long-term implementation timeline. “Secondary expansion scenarios are meaningful in their ability to enhance access to intercity bus service throughout the state but did not perform as well as the primary expansion new routes in the corridor evaluation process, nor would they be as quick to implement as expansions to existing services,” the report notes.

Those secondary expansion recommendations are:

• Creating a new route between Tacoma and Ocean Shores, connecting multiple cities with the Sound Transit and Pierce Transit networks.
• Creating a new route between Vancouver and Long Beach, connecting multiple cities with the Amtrak Cascades network.
• Creating a new route between the Tri-Cities and Pullman, which has interstate connections to Idaho.
• Creating a new route between Spokane and Omak, a discontinued Northwestern Stage Lines route.

Taken together, the five primary recommendations would be expected to more than double ridership on the overall Travel Washington network, with the biggest gains coming from the two brand new lines. Overall, those ridership projections remain modest, with only around 9,000 riders using the average line over the course of a year, but many of those trips are ones that would otherwise be incredibly hard to make. Since the intercity bus network provides baseline mobility, service expansion has the potential to open up additional transit connections and unlock access to more destinations.

On the cost side, the upper-level estimate to implement these primary recommendations is around $11 million per year in operating costs, a miniscule sum in the context of WSDOT’s overall budget, but still something that will remain challenging given declining transportation revenue and increasing project costs across the entire transportation budget.

Clearly the ideal intercity bus network for Washington would include many more routes and daily trips than this plan envisions, but this modest service increase proposal would represent a step in the right direction and a big gain for Washingtonians who need to get around without a car.

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