Happy New Year!

Given the amount of civic and community oxygen that was consumed by discourse over the City of Bellingham’s Holly Street bike lane pilot project in 2024, most Bellinghamsters would be forgiven if they didn’t hear too much local discussion around the Whatcom Transit Authority’s planned June 2025 bus service changes, approved by WTA’s Board of Directors in November. 

In early October, BhamByBus previewed what WTA has in store for June 2025. The package of local transit changes is promising and will expand service along certain Bellingham transit corridors, add new routes, and bring other adjustments. 

To review, local bus riders will find a good amount to like with the changes in June, including ...

A route digram: In June, WTA's new Route 9(Downtown to Hospital) will replace the southern portion of Route 4 between Bellingham Station and PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center via James Street in Sunnyland. The new route will have service every 30 minutes on weekdays and every 60 minutes on Saturdays and Sundays.
In June, WTA's new Route 9 (Downtown to Hospital) will replace the southern portion of Route 4 between Bellingham Station and PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center via James Street in Sunnyland. The new route will have service every 30 minutes on weekdays and every 60 minutes on Saturdays and Sundays. (Route diagram via WTA)
  • Better bus service to and from PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center: Splitting WTA’s underperforming Route 4 into two new routes, Route 9 (Downtown to Hospital) and Route 18 (Cordata to Hospital via Maplewood) will hopefully improve transit service to Whatcom County’s largest employer.
    • With Route 4, the St. Joseph campus currently only sees transit service once an hour Mondays-Saturday and no transit service on Sunday. The new Route 9, replacing Route 4’s southern portion between Bellingham Station and the hospital, will have buses every 30 minutes on weekdays and every 60 minutes on Saturdays and Sundays. 
    • While retiring Route 4 and introducing Route 9 will mean that low-ridership bus stops in the Cornwall Park neighborhood will be eliminated, the changes will improve transit service to the region’s primary medical center and the James Street corridor in Sunnyland. That includes WTA bus stops at James Street & Kentucky Street near neighborhood breweries, including El Sueñito Brewing, Kulshan Brewing, Otherlands Brewing, and Stemma Brewing. Let's hope Sunnyland residents, breweries, and other businesses embrace the new Route 9 on James Street as a great neighborhood asset, bolstering transit access in the area, already served by Route 331 along the Gold GO Line corridor on Alabama Street and Cornwall Avenue.  
A sign showing bus boarding bays for Route 46 (Granary) and Route 47 (Harbor).
Route 46 (Granary) and Route 47 (Harbor), introduced in September 2024, serve waterfront destinations from Bellingham Station. (Photo by Michael Grass / BhamByBus)
  • An increased span of service for WTA’s two recently introduced waterfront bus routes, Route 46 (Granary) and Route 47 (Harbor): WTA approved and introduced "interim" waterfront bus service in 2024, noting that the span of service — a handful of trips in the morning and afternoon, but not midday — was just a preview of better service in 2025. Come June, the existing service gaps will be filled, with hourly service on both waterfront routes for most of the day, all week. (The combined section of Route 46 and 47, between Bellingham Station and the Granary Building, will see bus service approximately every 30 minutes.)  Although limited opportunities for new housing along Bellingham’s working waterfront may hinder Route 46 and 47’s ridership potential, local stakeholders will hopefully champion the recently introduced bus routes as ways to support tourism and car-free access to Squalicum Harbor, Zuanich Point Park, and waterfront jobs.   
Route diagram: WTA's new Route 10(Eldridge) will serve the W. Holly Street corridor through Old Town.
In June, WTA's new Route 10(Eldridge) will serve the W. Holly Street corridor through Old Town once an hour weekdays and complement existing Route 3 (Airport) service, giving the corridor between Bellingham Station and Bellingham Technical College bus service twice an hour on weekdays. (Route diagram via WTA)
  • Additional service along W. Holly Street through Old Town and Eldridge Avenue: That includes new Sunday service for Route 3 (Airport) and a new weekday route, Route 10 (Eldridge), which will supplement existing Route 3 service between Downtown Bellingham and Bellingham Technical College (BTC). That will effectively create a transit corridor with service every 30 minutes on weekdays along W. Holly Street and Eldridge Avenue, thoroughfares that currently see one bus per hour. All these improvements will be great for transit access to BTC and Little Squalicum Park, while supporting higher density housing in the Old Town Urban Village.
  • Introducing the new Route 45 (King Mountain): This new route will provide WTA bus access to King Mountain, a growing neighborhood on Bellingham’s north side that currently lacks it.
Route diagram: The biggest change to Route 50 (Lummi Nation): Its Bellingham terminus will shift from Bellingham Station downtown to Cordata Station.
The biggest change to Route 50 (Lummi Nation): Its Bellingham terminus will shift from Bellingham Station downtown to Cordata Station. (Route digram via WTA)//
  • Rerouting Route 50 (Lummi Nation) to a new terminus in Bellingham: Cordata Station, instead of Bellingham Station downtown. With a Cordata terminus, the adjusted and somewhat shorter Route 50 will allow increased bus service frequency to the Lummi Nation, Northwest Indian College, and Lummi Island Ferry, from every 90 minutes to every 60 minutes, seven days a week. Trips between Downtown Bellingham and the Lummi Nation will require a transfer at Cordata Station or Bakerview Road & Northwest Avenue, however.   

Taking a step back, these are the types of service improvements that will help lower some of the barriers to using local transit, especially having new 30-minute bus frequencies on weekdays along James Street in Sunnyland and W. Holly Street in Old Town. 

Some of the benefits of the upcoming service improvements may be hard to communicate: Looking at Route 10, with its hourly service weekdays along W. Holly Street and Eldridge Avenue, it may not look like much with that transit addition. But when Route 10 and Route 3 are looked at together, they create a common transit corridor out to Little Squalicum Park with service every 30 minutes.

Little Squalicum Park, its pier, and Bellingham Bay with Lummi Island in the distance.
Starting in June, WTA's new Route 10 (Eldridge) bus will bolster transit access to Little Squalicum Park, currently served by Route 3 (Airport) via W. Holly Street and Eldridge Avenue. (Photo by Michael Grass / BhamByBus)

Additional transit improvements are needed to boost local ridership, including more frequent service. A bus every 30 minutes is OK and certainly far better than a bus once an hour. Service every 15 minutes (or better), however, is the level of transit frequency needed to be transformative. While frequency equals freedom, many regular bus riders in Bellingham, including BhamByBus, would welcome better crosstown transit options that negate a forced downtown bus transfer. WTA's June changes won't do that but a future bus rapid transit line along WTA's Blue and Green GO Line corridors might help address that particular challenge with WTA's bus network. 

In the meantime, WTA’s June service changes are welcome and hopefully will lay the foundation for future transit improvements in Bellingham and Whatcom County.