WA: Lexington route shrinks due to cost concerns. Will it last past September?

The Cowlitz Transit Authority last month implemented strategic cuts to an underfunded route connecting riders in the Beacon Hill and Lexington neighborhoods.

The board later this summer will decide on Route 411’s future after September.

RiverCities Transit switched to a Monday-Friday schedule and canceled 1:15 p.m. departures from the Longview transit station for the route effective March 31 in response to ridership and cost concerns, according to an email from Transit Director Jim Seeks. But the temporary route’s fate beyond September has yet to be decided.

Last fall the Cowlitz Transit Authority voted to keep the route through September 2025 despite a failed vote attempting to annex the precincts into the transportation district, according to an earlier news report.

Seeks added Wednesday that staff were instructed to continue service “while looking to do so more cost-effectively.”

“The March 31 change in Route 411’s schedule was with that goal in mind,” Seeks said.

Route costs, ridership

Because the neighborhoods are outside the Public Transportation Benefit Area’s boundaries, the 3/10th of 1% sales tax is not collected in the Beacon Hill and Lexington areas the same way they are in areas such as within the district, like the Kelso and Longview city limits.

Seeks said the Cowlitz Transit Authority board voted to preserve the routes last year on grounds that residents within those neighborhoods made the bulk of their purchases from places within the Public Transportation Benefit Area, and thus their purchases covered the route.

Seeks said at a Wednesday Cowlitz Transit Authority meeting that fares make a small percentage of revenue.

Ridership for Route 411 in calendar year 2024 was 6,088, or roughly 2.24% of the 271,510 rides counted throughout the district, according to an annual report issued in the Cowlitz Transit Authority agenda packet.

In March of this year, there were 632 rides on Route 411, or roughly 2.49% of the 25,371 overall rides counted last month.

Seeks said that he and his staff plan to ask the board’s direction in July whether to continue Route 411 boundaries.

“If the Board’s direction is to continue Route 411 beyond September, we’ll move forward accordingly for as long as they wish to do so,” Seeks said.

Should the board express a desire to make modifications or to discontinue the route, Seeks said that they will request a public hearing during the Aug. 13 board meeting “to give the public an opportunity to comment before the board’s final decision.”

“Either way, this will give RCT staff enough time to notify the public and adjust, if necessary, our drivers’ work schedules,” Seeks said.

© 2025 The Daily News, Longview, Wash.
Visit www.tdn.com.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.