EVERETT — By unanimous vote, Everett Transit has been annexed to Community Transit after a 9-0 approval by the Community Transit Board of Directors, merging the two bus agencies together after a months long debate in a $54 million deal for assets.
The CT Board voted less than 24 hours after the Everett City Council initiated the formal merger, approving an inter-local agreement Wednesday night in a 7-0 vote.
The requirement of the Everett City Council and Community Transit Board of Directors both approving the deal was facilitated by a prior change in state law that shifted a public vote by Everett residents to a majority vote of the city council. The change in law was approved by the Washington Legislature and signed by Gov. Bob Ferguson.
The annexation takes effect April 1, 2027.
CT Board member, Megan Dunn, is an Everett resident and voted to approve the annexation of ET.
She tells the EverettPost.com, “I’m optimistic. We know that this will be improved service, improved connectivity,” for Everett passengers. “We are moving to a regional transit system, especially with having the (CT bus rapid transit) Swift line finally in Snohomish County, so I’m very optimistic that we will see improved services and that the residents are going to be part of this Regional service.”
Part of the ILA hinges on an increase in Everett bus service by 50% that CT will provide going forward. CT CEO, Ric Ilgenfritz, explained before the vote, he expects that timeline to begin with a study and evaluation of the bus transit network as the merger goes into effect in April, followed by a CT Board vote by the end of 2027 with service expansion implementation in 2028. Ilgenfritz noted that microtransit options–smaller transit vehicles for more targeted service–might be faster to roll-out and implement as a service expansion within Everett, saying, “We can certainly set aggressive goals around service improvements…and I don’t want to over-promise in that regard,” before concluding, “there’s going to be a premium placed on showing some return as quickly as possible and we’re going to take that seriously and do our level best.”
For where that Everett service should be expanded, Dunn offered, “The biggest is going to be time of day. Right now, Community Transit (service), I believe goes to 10 o’clock, and Everett has a shorter time window. People that are taking light rail into Lynnwood and then connecting to a Community Transit bus now, they would be able to have extended service times. We also heard about some of the service times for the bus that goes to the port (of Everett, waterfront) that one ends at six o’clock or maybe five o’clock. If you’re going to go have dinner at the Port. How would you get home?”
Along with service time later into the night, Dunn expects bus frequency to increase within Everett in accordance with the annexation ILA. “Right now, the current plan Everett Transit plan would only have, I think 25% of their buses having a 15-minute frequency. Under the consolidation 75% of buses will have a 15-minute frequency. For example, the Everett 29, that’s a bus that goes (Silver Lake in South Everett, up Broadway to WSU Everett and College Station) in one direction. So, it’s about an hour to wait for a bus if you miss a bus. So that is also an area that we’ll see Improvement with the frequency of buses and then the time of service”