A few dozen participants turned out for a Transit Trivia Night event on Tuesday at Larrabee Lager Company in Bellingham's Cordata neighborhood, co-sponsored by the Whatcom Transit Authority and Transportation Choices Coalition, which has been helping to organize similar transit trivia events in other cities as part of Ride Transit Month in Washington state. 

Larrabee Lager Company, which hosted Tuesday's WTA Transit Trivia Night, is a short stroll or roll away from the Cordata Station. (Photo by Michael Grass / BhmByBus)

One of the questions from the WTA-specific question round testing local transit knowledge led to a muted chuckle from BhamByBus. It was a multiple-choice question asking (paraphrasing): What color is NOT the color of a WTA GO Line? Blue, Green, Gold, Plum, or Red?

The correct answer, of course, is Red. The WTA eliminated the former Red GO Line in 2017 during a realignment of service. But it does live on in the Fairhaven neighborhood if you know where to look for it! 

More on that in a moment, but first some background: In Bellingham, a "GO Line" is a corridor served by one or multiple WTA bus routes, where the combined frequency of service means a bus comes by approximately every 15 minutes for most of the day. The WTA used to have that level of service on what was then Route 401 (Downtown to Fairhaven), so the WTA applied the Red GO Line branding to the route. But when service frequency was reduced, it lost its color and GO Line status and changed to Route 1 (Downtown to Fairhaven). 

“That has been our lowest-ridership Go Line by far for a long time,” the WTA's director of service development told The Bellingham Herald in March 2017, noting that other routes serving Fairhaven factored into the lower ridership.

While the Route 1 corridor may have lower ridership compared to other WTA bus routes, as BhamByBus has detailed, Route 1 is perhaps the most useful route for Bellingham visitors, especially for those arriving by Amtrak Cascades train or bus and visiting major destinations in and between Downtown Bellingham and Fairhaven.

And it's at the Fairhaven Transportation Center (401 Harris Avenue at 4th Street), home to Bellingham's Amtrak station and the terminus of the former Red GO Line and today's Route 1, where there's one vestige of the Red Line hiding in plain sight.

There's an aging "We're on WTA's Red Line" marketing decal on the east-facing doors leading to the parking area and bus bays. (And BhamByBus thinks there's at least one other old decal out there, somewhere along N. State Street. If you know where it is, let BhamByBus know!)

A "We're on WTA's Red Line" GO Line marketing decal remains on a doorway at the Fairhaven Transportation Center.
A "We're on WTA's Red Line" GO Line marketing decal remains on a doorway at the Fairhaven Transportation Center. (Photo by Michael Grass / BhamByBus)

At the Fairhaven Transportation Center, the decal's red color has faded somewhat over the years, and someone had started to peel it off. But it appears stubborn. 

Perhaps that stubborn marketing decal is a sign to restart the Red GO Line? To do that, besides funding for an expansion of service, the WTA would also need more bus operators. And as the WTA's trivia host reminded all those assembled at Larrabee Lager Company last night: "We're always hiring."

While Transit Trivia Night included five rounds of questions, including a photo identification round and a music identification round, BhamByBus will run through the rest of the questions (the wording is paraphrased) and answers from the WTA-specific trivia round. 

  • Question: What is the busiest month for WTA ridership?
    Answer: October, when WWU students are back in full force and it's often rainy.
  • Question: What is the southernmost town you can reach via a WTA bus?Answer: Mount Vernon (via Route 80X). 
  • Question: Which WTA route had the highest ridership in 2023? a) Route 232, b) Route 197 c) Route 105, or d) Route 331.
    Answer: Route 331.
  • Question: How many years of driving experience do you need to operate a WTA bus?
    Answer: 5 years.
  • Question: Earlier this year, the WTA updated its agency tag line: What is it? 
    Answer: "Connecting People to Opportunity." (The old tag line was "Community Driven.") 
  • Question: What is the name of our service that provides curb to curb service? Answer: Paratransit.
  • Question: True or False: The latest WTA bus runs until 10:30 p.m. 
    Answer: (False) Route 190 will get you to Bellingham Station at 11 p.m.
  • Question: How many transit operators are employed by the WTA? 
    Answer: 178.
  • Question: At age 26, Yvonne Lindquist was the first female bus operator for Bellingham Municipal Transit System. What year was it? 
    Answer: 1974.