WA: This area of Pierce County will get transit for first time since 2012, for free

Key Peninsula residents will be able to hop on a shuttle and ride to Gig Harbor and back for free for the next eight months, beginning just before December.

Through the Peninsula Transit Pilot Program, a fixed route will run from the Longbranch Improvement Club northward, crossing the Purdy Bridge and extending through downtown Gig Harbor, and to the Uptown Gig Harbor shopping center on weekends.

“You got high school students that probably want to work after school, might not have transportation because their parents are working,” Pierce County Transportation Supervisor Daeveene May said in an interview Oct. 13. “You have sporting events for high school students on any given day that they might want to go to and mom and dad can’t take them or they can’t find a friend. You got seniors that, once they age out and can’t drive (anymore), would love to have some type of transportation to get to medical appointments, to connect to Pierce Transit and Sound Transit to get to Seattle or Tacoma or places like that.”

The last time the Key Peninsula had routine access to public transit was 2012. Pierce Transit discontinued service there after voters rejected a levy that would have helped fund it, The News Tribune reported. It was one of several areas where service was discontinued that year.

Service starts on Nov. 28. A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the pilot program and Holiday Shuttle coming to the Key Peninsula will be Saturday, Nov. 22 at 10 a.m. in the empty lot across the street from Key IGA, at 9021 Key Peninsula Highway NW in Lakebay. Shuttle stops

The shuttle route will run Monday through Saturday, except during the holiday season from Black Friday, Nov. 28 through Dec. 26 when it will run seven days a week in partnership with the annual Key Peninsula/ Gig Harbor Holiday Shuttle. Pierce County, Around the Sound Transportation and the Gig Harbor Chamber of Commerce/Visit Gig Harbor are heading the program.

The vehicle is ADA-accessible and can hold around 18 people maximum, May said.

The stops for the new shuttle are: * Longbranch Improvement Club * Key Peninsula Community Services * The Red Barn Youth Center (weekdays only and per request) * Key IGA * The Mustard Seed Project (per request) * Lake Kathryn Pharmacy * Purdy Park & Ride * St. Anthony’s Hospital (per request) * Gig Harbor Safeway Pavilion * Skansie Brothers Park * Uptown Gig Harbor (weekends only)

On weekdays, the first shuttle arrives at 5:30 a.m. at Longbranch Improvement Club. The last shuttle departs from Skansie Brothers Park at 4:30 p.m., dropping passengers off at Longbranch at 5:30 p.m., per the schedule.

On weekends, the first shuttle arrives at 9:50 a.m. at Longbranch Improvement Club. The last shuttle leaves Uptown Gig Harbor at 7:10 p.m. to return to Longbranch by 8:10 p.m. The shuttle will stop running on Sundays after Dec. 26.

A full schedule is available on the Pierce County website. The whole route is supposed to take about an hour. How is the program funded?

The pilot program has $575,000 total in funding, Pierce County spokesperson Kari Moore told The News Tribune. The county allocated $200,000 (including $5,000 to cover marketing costs), as well as another $25,000 toward the Holiday Shuttle led by the Gig Harbor Chamber of Commerce. The state contributed $350,000 in the 2025 Transportation Budget for transportation on the Key Peninsula.

Pierce County Council member Robyn Denson said in an interview that transportation on the Key Peninsula has been a priority for her since she was elected. She expressed gratitude for the local legislative partners who helped her secure state dollars for the program. The additional funding from the state will allow the program to run longer than it would have otherwise, Denson said.

“The new Peninsula Transit service will connect the Key Peninsula with Gig Harbor and with the larger transportation systems of Pierce Transit and Sound Transit,” she said in the program press release. “By providing this connection, our residents can better access jobs, health care, after-school activities, shopping, recreation, community events and can better connect with friends and family.”

May said that the county hopes to use the pilot program to collect data on ridership and evaluate whether the service is worth the cost. Staff will look at how many people are boarding the shuttles each month and how old riders are, he said.

They’ll also look at what individuals are using the service for. For example, if 10 people are going to and from work with the shuttle, riding it twice a day five times a week, that’s 100 boardings per week focused on employment, he said.

“That’s something very key that we continue to look at, supporting individuals getting to employment, or getting to their doctor’s appointments or stuff like that,” he said. “So it’s going to be a measurement of needs versus volume versus rate, basically.” Could the pilot expand to other parts of Pierce County?

The Pierce County Council originally had $600,000 in their 2024-2025 biennial budget allocated for transportation pilot programs in the Key Peninsula, White River and Spanaway communities, according to a Sept. 15 staff report. Staff recommended that the White River and Spanaway communities contract with an on-demand transit service provider rather than a fixed route.

At the Pierce County Council meeting Oct. 7, council members Dave Morell and Paul Herrera proposed an amendment to remove the White River and Spanaway communities they respectively represent from the proposed transportation pilot. The council approved the amended resolution.

Morell cited different priorities for his district since the council set the 2024-2025 budget.

“I’ve got some real needs up there that need to be met, and this program is no longer a priority to my constituents up in that area,” he said.

He plans to return with transportation-related requests for his district during discussions over the 2026-2027 budget, he said at the meeting.

May told The News Tribune that staff were hoping to have all three pilot programs run at the same time to collect “real strong data.”

“We wish we could have (done) all three at the same time, so we can look at that data and say: ‘Yes, this is where we need to pour money in for transportation,’ but we don’t have that right now,” May said. “So we’re very interested in making sure that we can get good data for the Key Pen so we can move forward on how to serve that community better.”

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