Headways Newsletter: July 2023
Welcome to the dog days of summer! To celebrate KT’s 40th Anniversary, we’re continuing our series on the agency’s history. Next up: the ups and downs of the 1990s, including how Kitsap Transit broke into the ferry business.
We’re also excited to be able to offer all of our service fare-free on Monday, July 10, and Tuesday, July 11, for the Major League Baseball All-Star Game! Our good friends at the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) have put together a great guide for getting to the ballpark. Sound Transit and King County Metro will be fare-free, too!
This month’s newsletter also includes news about a new transit center in West Bremerton, the launch of our BI Ride marketing campaign, and more. Enjoy!
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Sink or Swim: Kitsap Transit in the 90s
Today, passenger ferries are an integral part of Kitsap Transit’s system. But the agency and its partners had to navigate several years of choppy waters to get there, including voter approval of a statewide measure that gutted nearly a third of the agency’s budget, forcing layoffs and service cuts by the turn of the century.
Ride KT for free to the MLB All-Star Game in Seattle July 10 and 11
T-Mobile Park is the site of the 2023 MLB All-Star Game. (Credit: Mat Hayward - stock.adobe.com)
For the first time in more than two decades, Seattle will host the Major League Baseball All-Star game this year at T-Mobile Park. To celebrate and support the All-Star Game and Home Run Derby, Kitsap Transit will go fare-free on its bus and ferry services on Monday, July 10, and Tuesday, July 11.
Kitsap Transit purchases Bremerton Lanes building for new transit center
At its June 6 boarding meeting, Kitsap Transit’s Board of Commissioners approved the purchase of the former Bremerton Lanes building on Bruenn Avenue, which will be demolished to make way for a redesigned and expanded West Bremerton Transit Center.
Kicking off our BI Ride marketing campaign
Thanks to $100,000 in funding from the City of Bainbridge Island, Kitsap Transit is launching a BI Ride awareness campaign. The goal: Increase the on-demand service’s ridership by 20 percent and Ride Pingo app downloads by 30 percent.
Kitsap Transit vanpooler wins plane ride, $2000 resort stay
Last week, Kitsap Transit awarded Dilan Rieder the grand prize for our vanpool promotion: a $2,000 gift card plus a plane ride for two to Rosario’s Resort on Orcas Island.
June 12 service change
Our summer service change took effect on June 12. We adjusted time points on several routes, added a few new trips and renamed Route 9–South Park to Route 9–East Port Orchard, among other changes. Read our blog post for details!