The Tillamook County Transportation District (TCTD) is a provider of local and intercity bus transportation services in Tillamook County, Oregon

Tillamook County, Oregon

Tillamook County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oregon. The county is named for the Tillamook, a Native American tribe who were living in the area in the early 19th century at the time of European American settlement. In 2010, the county's population was 25,250...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The borders of the transportation district are contiguous with those of Tillamook County, though it is organizationally independent of Tillamook County.

Beginnings

TCTD was created by the Tillamook County Board of Commissioners in 1997, the transportation district's first board of directors was elected in November 1997, and had its first meeting the following month.

TCTD was created at the request of the county's Transportation Advisory Committee one year into a transportation demonstration project sponsored by the State of Oregon. The project, nicknamed "The Wave" early on, had been instituted using two borrowed buses to offer limited local bus service within Tillamook County, and limited intercity service to Hillsboro

Hillsboro, Oregon

Hillsboro is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon and is the county seat of Washington County. Lying in the Tualatin Valley on the west side of the Portland metropolitan area, the city is home to many high-technology companies, such as Intel, that compose what has become known as the...

, Beaverton

Beaverton, Oregon

Beaverton is a city in Washington County, Oregon, United States, seven miles west of Portland in the Tualatin River Valley.As of the 2010 census, the population is 90,267. This makes it the second-largest city in the county and Oregon's sixth-largest city...

 and Portland

Portland, Oregon

Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...

. Various studies and growing ridership on the new services suggested that a tax-supported bus system might be viable in the coastal county.

Though the transportation district had been established by the county commissioners, it lacked any substantial source of funding beyond that offered by the state for the demonstration project. The newly-elected board of directors asked voters to approve a property tax levy of twenty cents per thousand assessed valuation in the spring of 1998. This initial ballot measure failed. The same measure was again put to the voters in November of the same year, however, passing with a margin of over 60% the second time around.

Growth

Once a source of funding had been secured through the voter-approved tax levy, TCTD began work to improve its services. In 1999, a new general manager was hired, and improvements were made in the district's route system. The fare system was redesigned and simplified, making travel on the system more economical for its riders. New vehicles were put into service to replace the aging borrowed buses, and service frequencies were improved. Eventually, service to Portland was streamlined to cut travel times, and connections were improved with Tri-Met  services (including its MAX light rail system) and Amtrak

Amtrak

The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak , is a government-owned corporation that was organized on May 1, 1971, to provide intercity passenger train service in the United States. "Amtrak" is a portmanteau of the words "America" and "track". It is headquartered at Union...

 to make regional travel more convenient. The changes were greeted with substantial ridership increases as TCTD provided more and more services to both the north and south portions of Tillamook County, and in the city of Tillamook itself. Dial-A-Ride services, initially provided by volunteer drivers and now supplemented with some paid drivers, made TCTD services available to all areas of the county.

State of the district

Currently, TCTD offers its local bus services six days a week (Monday through Saturday). Intercity services are offered to Portland seven days a week. TCTD also now operates service north from Tillamook County into Cannon Beach

Cannon Beach, Oregon

Cannon Beach is a city in Clatsop County, Oregon, United States. The population was 1,588 as of the 2000 census. The 2007 estimate is 1,680 residents.- History :...

 in Clatsop County

Clatsop County, Oregon

Clatsop County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oregon. The county is named for the Clatsop tribe of Native Americans, who lived along the coast of the Pacific Ocean prior to European settlement. As of 2010, the population was 37,039. The county seat is Astoria.-Economy:The principal...

 in cooperation with the Sunset Empire Transportation District

Sunset Empire Transportation District

The Sunset Empire Transportation District provides federally-funded rural intercity bus services in Clatsop County, Oregon. Sunset Empire Transportation is also known as 'The Bus'....

.

Routes

Route	Route Name	Area Served	Days of Service
1	Tillamook Town Loop	Tillamook	Monday - Saturday
2	Tillamook - Oceanside / Netarts	Tillamook, Oceanside & Netarts	Monday - Saturday
3	Tillamook - Manzanita / Cannon Beach	Tillamook, Bay City, Garibaldi, Idaville, Rockaway Beach, Wheeler, Nehalem, Manzanita & Cannon Beach	Monday - Saturday
4	Tillamook - Neskowin / Otis	Tillamook, Pleasant Valley, Beaver, Hebo, Cloverdale, Pacific City, Neskowin & Otis	Monday - Saturday
5	Tillamook - Portland	Tillamook, Tillamook Forest Center, Banks North Plains, Beaverton & Portland	Monday - Sunday

External links

• Tillamook County Transportation District (official website)