Welcome to the 250th episode of Transit Unplugged! What a tremendous milestone and we're only just getting started! We have big plans for the show--the podcast and TV--and we know you'll like what we have up our sleeves.

This week Paul is in conversation with Community Transit CEO, Ric Ilgenfritz from Snohomish County, WA. Listen as Ric and Paul talk about not only serving the diverse needs of Snohomish County but also the Bus Rapid Transit plans he has put into motion to get people where they want to go quickly and conveniently. Ric uses stable funding from sales taxes to not only increase operational service levels in the community but also fund capital improvements to better serve the community in the future.

Snohomish County, north of Seattle, has a service area of 1300 square miles, including urban, suburban, and rural areas and Ric serves commuters heading south, plus a large and diverse community of 650,000 people. He accomplishes this with commuter coach buses, BRT, regular bus service, and paratransit running throughout the county. Because his community is so closely tied to the universities and businesses to the south, Ric works closely with his colleagues at Sound Transit, King County Metro, and Everitt Transit to make sure all the systems are coordinated together, including the expansion of the Sound Transit Light Rail project into Snohomish County. As light rail reaches his service area, Ric will be able to curtail service to Seattle and redeploy those assets to improve frequency and service levels in the rest of the county.

Listen to the whole story and how his experience working in Washington D.C. helps him serve his community now.

All this plus Mike's Minute with Mike Bismeyer.

Next week on Transit Unplugged, we continue our discussion of the transition to zero emissions transit with Doran Barnes, CEO of Foothill Transit, and Karl Gnadt, Managing Director of the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District, with more on hydrogen fuel cells. We also get book recommendations from Jim Haring, CIO of MV Transportation in our leadership segment.

If you have a question or want to be a guest on the show, email us at [email protected].

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(00:00) Ric Ilgenfrtiz CEO Community Transit (00:02) Interview with Ric Ilgenfritz - CEO of Community Transit Learn more about Community Transit on their website https://vzyfm.co/3mK9FPD (27:55) Mike's Minute with Mike Bismeyer https://vzyfm.co/3tAj8Zy (29:29) Coming up next week Doran Barnes, Karl Gnadt, and Jim Haring (30:27) Subscribe to Transit Unplugged TV on YouTube https://vzyfm.co/3SB9Bx3

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