Greyhound initiates north shore route between Yakima and Portland, Ore.

The service is being funded by a reimbursable operating grant of up to $302,293, according to grant program specialist Ginny Morin of the Public Transportation office, Washington State Department of Transportation (WSD0T).

She noted the grant is a combination of state-administered federal transit funds and money from the state's Rural Mobility Grant Program.

"The service area between Yakima and Vancouver was identified by a state survey as a deficient corridor," Morin explained, because the rural communities along State Route 14 didn't have access to regularly scheduled public transportation services.

"The absence of rural intercity bus service, a gap in the transportation system from one place to another, was the reason the grant was approved," she noted.

Under terms of Greyhound's contract with the state, a bus will depart from Yakima at 7 in the morning and make stops in Goldendale, Lyle, Bingen, Stevenson, North Bonneville, Skamania Landing, Washougal, Camas and Vancouver en route to the Greyhound terminal in Portland.

In the afternoon, a bus will leave Portland for Yakima at 2:15 and make the same stops in reverse order.

The stops in Bingen, at the McDonald's restaurant, occur at 9:35 a.m. and 4:20 p.m., respectively. The times in Lyle, are 9:20 and 4:35, at the Tesoro station.

"One of our goals is to provide essential public transportation to small towns and cities across rural America," said Craig Lentzsch, Greyhound's president and chief executive officer. "Cities in Washington along the north side of the Columbia River haven't had access to Greyhound for more than a decade, and we couldn't have established this service without the assistance of the Washington State DOT."

Greyhound anticipates the service will provide 2,000 passenger trips per year.

Prior to finalizing the route, Greyhound and state officials met with representatives of municipal transit agencies, Gorge-based transportation providers and regional transportation councils to develop schedules and services feeding into the Greyhound route.

"We're excited about the new service from Greyhound and the opportunity to coordinate so that our clients can travel longer distances," said Roger Gadway, director of Klickitat County's non-profit Mount Adams Transportation (MATS) service.

He added that MATS is working with Greyhound by providing service to and from stops in Goldendale, Lyle and Bingen.

In addition to the start-up of the Yakima-Portland run, Greyhound has instituted a Cascade Locks stop (at the Texaco station), on a trial basis, to its daily runs to and from Portland on Interstate 84. The stop began Sept. 28. (Greyhound also stops in Hood River.)

The partnership between the state and Greyhound that led to the new Yakima-Portland route and the Cascade Locks stop was partly the result of Skamania County resident Avis Dunas' lobbying effort through WSDOT in Olympia.

"I have single-handedly battled Greyhound and the state of Washington to get us a bus," she said. "Actually, I just pleaded our case, and they were responsive to it."

The availability of Greyhound service through the Gorge provides people with an affordable alternative for travel and shipping to and from the Portland-Vancouver metropolitan area, according to Dunas.

"It's a beginning," she noted, "and if people use it, we'll keep it."

At the end of the two-year pilot project, Greyhound will review its ridership data to determine whether to keep operating the line.

"The bottom line is, if it doesn't fill well, we'll lose it after two years," Dunas warned.

But, as she also pointed out, the stop at greatest risk is the one in Cascade Locks.

"If Greyound finds people aren't using it, it will be discontinued."

(This report was compiled by The Enterprise staff.)