Bus route to coast and Salem restored

By Nicole Montesano

Smoke Signals staff writer

A new bus route running between Lincoln City and Salem, with a stop in Grand Ronde, is tentatively scheduled to begin operating on Sunday, Oct. 13, once again making it easier for anyone living on the reservation to get around without a car.

The Northwest Connector, operated by Pacific Crest Bus Lines, will be making three daily trips from Chinook Winds Casino in Lincoln City to the downtown Salem Transit Mall, seven days a week. The bus will not operate on Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year’s Day.

The buses will stop at Rose Lodge on the coast, the Grand Ronde Community Center, Spirit Mountain Casino, Rickreall Fairgrounds Park & Ride, Edgewater at Rosemont in West Salem and the Greyhound Amtrak Station in Salem.

The Rickreall stop is a curbside bus stop where riders can catch the Chemeketa Area Regional Transit System van service that makes six stops per day between Dallas, Rickreall and Salem, between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. From Rose Lodge, riders can catch a bus route running along the coast between Newport and Rose Lodge. From Chinook Winds, riders can catch a bus to Safeway in Lincoln City, as well as up and down the coast.

Buses leave from the Grand Ronde Community Center heading east daily at 6:54 a.m., 12:24 p.m. and 6:04 p.m. They return to the community center, heading toward the coast, at 9:26 a.m., 3:06 p.m. and 8:28 p.m.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, buses ran regularly between Grand Ronde, Lincoln City and Salem. Having the Coastal Connection and the Grand Ronde Express meant Tribal members living on the reservation didn’t need a car to attend to business they had elsewhere.

But the pandemic took a toll in many unexpected areas, including transit companies, which lost many of their drivers.

Last December, the Tillamook County Transportation District notified the Tribe it could no longer maintain the Coastal Connection Line that ran three times a day between Lincoln City and Salem. The last bus ran on Dec. 10 and since then, residents on the reservation have been without service to the coast or Salem.

Tillamook had already shuttered the Grand Ronde Express that ran between Grand Ronde and Salem, and the loss of the Coastal Connection left only Yamhill County Transit, which provides rides to Sheridan, Willamina and McMinnville Monday through Friday, eight times a day, with a stop at Spirit Mountain Casino.

 Saturday service has been suspended until further notice. The Yamhill County Transit bus stops at two locations in McMinnville; Albertsons grocery store and the downtown transit center on Second Street.

It is possible to catch a bus to West Salem from the McMinnville Transit Center, five times a day, although several of those runs depart shortly before the bus from Grand Ronde reaches the Transit Center, and returning in time to catch the bus back to Grand Ronde is equally difficult.

Without the direct bus to Lincoln and Salem, “People aren’t able to visit their families, get their shopping done, go to the DMV or the courts,” Public Works Coordinator John Mercier said.

Since December, Mercier’s phone has been ringing, a lot. He said the inquiries are polite, but “I do get people saying ‘gosh, this is taking a long time.’”

Mercier said he understands the loss has been frustrating for many people and he has been scrambling for months to find a new transit provider. Last January, he had hoped a few promising leads on possible new routes would come to fruition, but none of them panned out.

“Salem expressed an interest temporarily but they’ve become non-responsive,” Mercier said.

A new company has stepped forward: Pacific Crest Bus Lines. Since putting together a formal request for proposals, taking bids and evaluating them is a months-long process, Mercier said he received permission from the state Department of Transportation to hire the company for six months to fill in bus services while the Tribe goes through the formal process.

The company promised that it already had drivers and buses in place, Mercier said, and he was working on an agreement to store the buses at Chinook Winds Casino, which would also benefit from the new route.

Once that’s done, however, Mercier said he hopes ODOT will allow him to extend the contract to the end of next June, so that whichever company is awarded the contract for the permanent route can start at the beginning of the new biennium.

In addition to restoring travel between Salem and the coast, he is trying to get service into Dallas where the county courthouse and other offices are located, to add more convenient services for Tribal members.

Doing so, however, has proven problematic.

“None of the transit agencies will use the Kings Valley intersection,” Mercier said. “They’re waiting for ODOT to put a roundabout in. It’s already been delayed a year.”

Due to issues with utility companies, he said, 2026 is the earliest construction might begin.

Mercier is serving on the design committee for that roundabout. Once it is installed, he doesn’t expect to have any trouble finding a company to establish a route to Dallas.

In addition, he said, Pacific Crest is working on a route with another organization for a bus route between Eugene and Forest Grove, with a stop in Grand Ronde, although Mercier said the starting date isn’t going to be soon.