EVERETT — Hop on an Everett Transit bus on a Monday and the driver might just be the agency’s new director.
When his schedule allows, Mike Schmieder likes to do what he calls “Mocha Monday,” where he’ll give one of the drivers a gift card for coffee. While they take a short break, he drives part of the route. Schmieder started out as a bus operator in 2008 when he joined Everett Transit.
“I’ve been around buses a lot of my life,” Schmieder said.
On Oct. 1, he took over the top job from Tom Hingson, who was with Everett Transit for 25 years, 18 as its director.
Schmieder’s affinity for buses goes way back.
He graduated from Seattle Bible College and spent a decade in ministry, serving as a lead pastor at several churches. His time in college brought him into contact with a group that used buses as part of its mission, offering transportation for what he described as “some pretty rough neighborhoods.”
That planted an idea. When he joined the staff of a church in southern California, he got his commercial driver’s license. He ended up back in Washington, working construction — where he drove a bus — before getting back into ministry, this time in Everett.
“One of the first things that I did was I bought a bus and reached out into the community with that bus,” Schmieder said.
He eventually left ministry, but the love for buses lived on.
“Eventually I just felt like it was time for me to step away from from pastoral ministry, the right fit for my my family and I,” Schmieder said. “I started all over again at the age of 43 and came to the city of Everett as a bus driver.”
Schmieder held several supervisory and managerial roles for Everett Transit, most recently as operations manager.
The leadership shift at Everett Transit is the latest in a series of big transportation changes in Snohomish County and the greater Puget Sound region.
Sound Transit recently opened the Lynnwood Link, bringing commuter light rail service to Snohomish County. This forced big changes for bus agencies in the county, especially Community Transit, which pulled many of its Seattle bus routes in favor of more frequent localized service.
This meant service changes for Everett Transit as well, which outside of inter-city routes has to connect with Community Transit’s main rail feeder routes. Other changes are coming, too. Community Transit is expected to open the Gold Line, another bus rapid transit route in 2029. Gold Line will connect the Smokey Point Transit Center with Everett Station, the city’s main transportation hub.
Community Transit and Everett Transit are deeply intertwined to the point Everett Transit has considered consolidating with the larger regional transit service. In 2021, the Everett City Council approved a study into the idea.
The consolidation study is set to resume in 2025 after a break this year as both agencies adapted to big local transit changes. If they did merge, local transit sales taxes would increase. Any consolidation would have to be voter approved.
“I think when it was tabled the expectation was that it would be picked back up in the future and ultimately that is a decision for the community to decide,” Schmieder said.
Everett voters shot down a proposition earlier this year that sought to address some of the city’s financial shortfalls. Schmieder said that due to the way Everett Transit is funded, the city’s funding issues are not expected to impact the agency, at least directly.
Other changes are afoot, as well. Next year, Everett Transit will replace 14 of its diesel buses with electric buses. About 70% of the 49-bus fleet will be zero emissions when the new electric buses go into service, he said.
Sound Transit’s voter-approved plan is for light rail to connect Everett between 2037 and the early 2040s, which means a whole host of transportation planning over the next few decades.
Connecting with future mass transit changes and improving system safety are some of his priorities.
“We’re looking at our future with a lot of optimism and a lot of vision,” Schmieder said. “And we’re excited about it.”
Jordan Hansen: 425-339-3046; jordan.hansen@heraldnet.com; X: @jordyhansen.
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