Spokane’s transit system is firing on all cylinders. The city is already a transit town, having grown up around the railroad and one of the largest urban streetcar systems in the West. But in the last few years, long-standing efforts to renew the region’s network have finally been bearing fruit.
In 2023, Spokane Transit launched the City Line, the region’s first bus rapid transit system, featuring high-quality stations, all-electric buses and a nationally best-in-class rider information system. The agency is hard at work planning and designing its next rapid transit line, North Division BRT, which will have many of the same features, plus the region’s first dedicated transit lanes. Cross-town routes like the 4, the Monroe-Regal Line, have been revamped with more frequent service, better stations, and electric buses. And later this fall, STA will launch the region’s first double-decker buses on the Routes 6 and 66, serving Cheney and EWU. Even the agency’s communications are on-point; this summer it released a Jaws-inspired ad promoting double-decker service that went viral nationally in pro-transit circles.
Perhaps it shouldn’t come as a surprise, then, that Spokane’s transit ridership has surpassed pre-pandemic levels, increasing an astonishing 13.6% in 2024 over 2023…