If you're contemplating a car-free visit to Bellingham from Seattle (or are a Bellinghamster planning a car-free trek south), Amtrak Cascades trains and buses, which serve the Fairhaven Transportation Center (401 Harris Avenue at 4th Street), are usually the best bet.

But it's not the only option. In addition to the Bellair Airporter Shuttle between Bellingham, Seattle, and SeaTac Airport, which has stops at Bellingham International Airport and Bellingham's 4 Points Sheraton (714 Lakeway Drive at Interstate 5), Greyhound intercity buses serve Bellingham along with buses from Munich, Germany's Flixbus (which also owns Greyhound) on its Seattle–Vancouver, B.C. route. If that's not confusing enough, Seattle-based MTRWestern operates Flixbus and Greyhound services to and from Bellingham, along with Amtrak Cascades bus service on behalf of the Washington State Department of Transportation. (Sometimes that might mean a forgetful MTRWestern operator may say "FlixBus" instead of "Amtrak Cascades" during a passenger information introduction, prompting momentary confusion during bus departures out of Seattle.)  

Last week, BhamByBus was reminded of the local Flixbus confusion in Bellingham when riding a Whatcom Transit Authority Route 1 bus into Downtown Bellingham from Fairhaven. An adjacent passenger was engaged in an animated phone conversation complaining how they had gone to the wrong Flixbus pickup point. Instead of the "Bellingham Bus Stop," a.k.a. the Fairhaven Transportation Center, they needed to be across town at Flixbus's Western Washington University stop, "which isn't even at Western." If BhamByBus understood the conversation correctly, a previous Flixbus trip they had taken to Bellingham dropped them off in Fairhaven, so they assumed that's where they needed to go.

A sign reading: "There is no Greyhound or Flix Bus office here. Some runs do stop here. Please check your ticket for the correct location. This is "401 Harris". Most Flix Bus trips stop at the Lincoln Creek Park and Ride."  "NO ONE HERE HAS ANY GREYHOUND OF FLIX BUS INFORMATION."
Looking for Flixbus or Greyhound bus information at the Fairhaven Transportation Center? Look elsewhere. (Photo by Michael Grass / BhamByBus)

A sign in the Fairhaven Transportation Center's lobby, down the way to the Amtrak customer service booth, offers an explanation:

"There is no Greyhound or Flix Bus office here. Some runs do stop here. Please check your ticket for the correct location. This is "401 Harris". Most Flix Bus trips stop at the Lincoln Creek Park and Ride." 
"NO ONE HERE HAS ANY GREYHOUND OF FLIX BUS INFORMATION."

Digesting all that, here's what that means practically:

  • Flixbus currently offers three stops in the Seattle area: SeaTac Airport; 6th Avenue S. & S. Lane Street in the Chinatown–International District; and NE Campus Parkway & 11th Avenue NE near the University of Washington. But in Bellingham, in addition to its Bellingham Bus Stop in Fairhaven, Flixbus serves a "Bellingham (WWU)" stop at the Lincoln Creek Park & Ride (800 Lincoln Street) near Interstate 5. Previously, there was a Flixbus stop on Western's campus near the Viking Union on High Street, but now, it's in Western's large gravel parking lot off Lincoln Street, far from the center of campus. 
  • Flixbus-operated Greyhound buses, which can also be booked through Flixbus website and app, serve the aforementioned Bellingham Bus Stop at the Fairhaven Transportation Center but not the Bellingham (WWU) stop at the Lincoln Creek Park & Ride. Greyhound bus trips out of Fairhaven stop in Everett (but not the University of Washington) on their way to and from 6th Avenue S. & S. Lane Street in Seattle via Interstate 5. 

When weighing Bellingham's intercity bus services to and from Seattle, BhamByBus generally thinks Amtrak Cascades bus service is better than Flixbus, especially with the super nice, quiet, and all-electric Van Hool CX45E Amtrak Cascades buses operated by MTRWestern. 

The Flixbus Bellingham (WWU) stop at the Lincoln Creek Park & Ride, in the view of BhamByBus, is not as convenient given the lack of nearby walkable destinations. The Lincoln Creek Park & Ride is served decently well by transit via WTA routes 190 (Downtown to Lincoln Street via WWU), 196 (WWU/Lincoln), 197 (Lincoln/WWU), and 533 (Downtown to Yew Street), plus Route 80X (Bellingham to Mount Vernon) jointly operated by the WTA and Skagit Transit.   

One advantage with Flixbus for Bellinghamsters is that its University of Washington stop in Seattle can be convenient for certain destinations in Seattle, including easy transfers to/from numerous King County Metro routes serving the U District. Sound Transit's U District Link light-rail station is about two and a half blocks uphill from the Flixbus stop on NE Campus Parkway. If you don't need to go through Downtown Seattle, the UW stop can be handy.   

While Amtrak Cascades bus departures to Bellingham out of Seattle's King Street Station can be delayed due to late-arriving northbound trains from Portland, Flixbus bus service to Bellingham can be delayed by traffic in Seattle, especially trying to reach the UW stop on NE Campus Parkway, which doesn't offer any nearby shelter from the rain or sun.

All Bellingham–Seattle bus riders, regardless of transportation provider, are subject to the whims of I-5 traffic. And while the HOV lanes between Northgate in Seattle and Everett (and soon the Washington State Department of Transportation's HOV lane extension to Marysville currently under construction) help buses move through freeway congestion — including the region's worst-delayed section through Seattle's Snohomish County suburbs — WSDOT"s upcoming "Revive I-5" construction work near the Ship Canal Bridge set to start later this year is likely to impact intercity bus service along I-5. Motorists won't be spared delays either.  

And those longer term I-5 traffic disruptions may make taking an Amtrak Cascades train all the more appealing.