Getting around Gold Bar with Community Transit

An image of a bridge over a river in Gold Bar, WA

Community Transit is here to get you where you want to go. We are proud to be a part of the Gold Bar community — we live here, ride here, and drive here. Wherever you need to go in Gold Bar,feel good about how you get there.

About Gold Bar

Gold Bar is located on the Skykomish River between Sultan and Index, connected by U.S. Route 2. The population was 2,403 at the 2020 census.

Gold Bar is known as a white-water rafting destination for those seeking to float the Skykomish River. One of the most popular low elevation hikes in the metro Seattle area, the trail to Wallace Falls, is located on the north margin of the city. More than 160,000 people visit Wallace Falls State Park annually.

People traveling to and from the area can take Community Transit's Route 270/271, which runs between Gold Bar, Sultan, Monroe, Snohomish, and Everett. Gold Bard Park & Ride is an option for riders, too. Community Transit's DART paratransit service and Vanpool are also options for local riders.

Popular Destinations

Community Transit ridership increased 23% in 2023

Mar 20, 2024, 08:00 by Samantha Menzimer
A man smiling and looking out the bus window. Other people are riding the bus in the background.

If you rode the bus, took a vanpool, or took a DART paratransit ride in 2023, you are part of the nearly 7.1 million boardings that increased Community Transit ridership by 23% over the previous year. As Community Transit actively works on expanding services across Snohomish County in 2024,  it is exciting to see our community members choosing transit to get where they need to be.

Swift Bus Rapid Transit accounted for 34.6% of total boardings

A large part of this ridership increase is from boardings on our Swift Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) service, which accounted for almost 2.5 million, or 34.6%, of our total boardings in 2023. These rides took place on the Swift Blue Line (Aurora Village – Everett Station) and Swift Green Line (Seaway – Canyon Park). 

Fixed-Route boardings went up

In 2023, fixed-route bus boardings went up 22.9% over the previous year. Fixed-route means all our regularly scheduled bus service. In 2024 and beyond, Community Transit is expanding bus service in Snohomish County and you can learn more about these changes.  

DART paratransit boardings went up

In 2023, Dial-A-Ride Transportation  (DART) paratransit boardings increased 14.9% over the previous year. DART is an on-demand ride-sharing service that provides transportation for eligible Snohomish County residents who can’t access or use Community Transit’s fixed-route bus service due to a disability or condition. 

Vanpool boardings went up

In 2023, Vanpool boardings increased 35.4% over the previous year. Vanpool is a shared-ride service where you and a group of coworkers, or others heading in your direction, share your workday commute in a van that Community Transit provides and maintains for you. Vanpools are designed to help you save time, money, and reduce your climate impact when you share your ride to work.

Zip Alderwood Shuttle 

The Zip Alderwood Shuttle is an on-demand shared-ride service for travel anywhere within a defined area in Alderwood, for the same price as local bus fare. Zip had a successful pilot testing program, and it officially went into regular service in October 2023. While there has not yet been enough data collected to do a year-over-year analysis, Zip ridership has been about 4,000 boardings per month.  

A collection of charts showing Community Transit's increase in ridership in 2023.

Pictured above: A look at the data showing an increase in Community Transit ridership from 2021-2023.

Looking ahead

It’s exciting to see more people choosing to ride public transit in the post pandemic era.  Travel and work habits have changed, so Community Transit is continuing to expand services in Snohomish County to meet the needs of riders.  Find out more on the Service Changes webpage.

The expansion of bus service in Snohomish County includes the launch of the new Swift Orange Line on March 30. The Swift Orange Line will run between Edmonds College and McCollum Park and will bring even more people on board with Community Transit. If you haven't tried Swift BRT yet, hop on any of the Swift BRT lines and find out why this is our most popular service!