Company Profile
Company Overview
A nine-member Board of Commissioners oversees the Agency. The Board is comprised of elected officials representing Pierce County, the cities of Tacoma, Lakewood, and University Place/Puyallup (a rotating appointment), and the smaller towns and cities of Pierce Transit's service area.
The Chief Executive Officer is responsible for implementation of the policies legislated by the Board of Commissioners. In order to provide overall management for the Authority, five departments employing a total of about 1000 people have been established: Executive Office, Transportation Services, Transit Development, Finance & Administration and Human Resources & Technology.
Employees by Department:
698 Transit Operations employees
158 vehicle and facilities maintenance employees
152 management and support staff
30% of employees are minorities, 39% are female.
Services
Pierce Transit serves as a vital link in our regional transportation system by connecting with:
Sound Transit, the regional transit agency providing services to Snohomish, King and Pierce Counties
Intercity Transit in Pierce and Thurston Counties
King County Metro
Pierce County ferries in Steilacoom
Washington State ferries at Point Defiance
Amtrak in Downtown Tacoma
Greyhound, Link Light Rail and Sounder trains at the Tacoma Dome Station
Pierce Transit provides 52 local bus routes, 11 Sound Transit routes, SHUTTLE (specialized transportation for people with disabilities), vanpool, ridematching and intercounty express service to Seattle, Sea-Tac Airport and Olympia provided in cooperation with Sound Transit and Intercity Transit. Pierce Transit's fixed-route system serves a 414 square mile area with an estimated population of 767,000 that includes the cities and towns of Auburn, Bonney Lake, Buckley, DuPont, Fife, Edgewood, Fircrest, Gig Harbor, Lakewood, Milton, Orting, Puyallup, Ruston, Steilacoom, Sumner, Tacoma and University Place, along with extensive unincorporated areas of Pierce County. Our routes operate on more than 900 miles of city streets, county roads and state highways from Seattle through Tacoma and on to Olympia.
Our fleet includes 272 buses (77 owned by Sound Transit), all wheelchair accessible, and nearly all of which run on compressed natural gas.
11 Transit Centers and Stations, over 3,300 bus stops (456 with flashing lights to increase visibility), 626 covered bus shelters (59 with solar-lighting) and 28 park-and-ride lots are provided for our patrons.
Pierce Transit operates public vanpools, providing service for commuters traveling throughout the Puget Sound region, especially those not well served by fixed route buses or traveling long distances.
Our demand-response service, SHUTTLE, provides transportation for people certified eligible for the service because they are functionally unable to ride a fixed-route bus. To best serve disabled riders and maximize SHUTTLE efficiency, rides are organized on a subscription, group or call-in basis.
Company History
The Pierce County Public Transportation Benefit Area Corporation, also known as "Pierce Transit", was formed in 1979 when local voters passed a 0.3 percent sales tax to fund public transportation. By authorizing this taxing authority, a municipal corporation (Pierce Transit) was formed under Chapter 36.57A of the Revised Code of Washington. In 2002, voters passed an additional 0.3 percent sales tax to replace revenue lost when Initiative 695 cut off the Motor Vehicle Excise Tax as a source of funding for public transportation. At present, Pierce Transit is the second largest transit agency in Washington State.