EVERETT — Community Transit’s board of directors approved a $560 million biennial operating budget on Thursday, funding increased service levels, more staff and paving the way for new construction through 2027.
Including capital costs, the two-year budget — the transit agency’s first — totals $851 million. The budget will pay for an increase of about 130,000 service hours, 198 new staff and new pilot areas for Community Transit’s microtransit service, known as Zip.
A main focus of the budget, the agency wrote in a release Friday, is safety. The budget funds 14 new security officers and will allow for the installation of driver barrier doors on its buses. The agency will also undergro a recruiting effort to battle an industry-wide shortage of mechanics, which affects its ability to put more buses into service, Community Transit wrote Friday.
Capital dollars in the budget will pay for work on the extension of the Swift Green Line, upgrades to Everett Station and the Smokey Point Transit Center, and pay for an order of 10 new fully electric buses.
Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.
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