Budget Crunch Means Fewer Eureka Bus Trips This Summer as Redwood Coast Transit Faces Funding Shortfall

Residents traveling between Humboldt and Del Norte counties will have fewer public transit options this summer after the Redwood Coast Transit Authority, at it’s meeting in Del Norte County on May 27, approved continuing its winter schedule through September in an effort to reduce costs amid growing budget concerns.

The decision eliminates the extra summer bus service that normally adds a third daily Route 20 trip between Crescent City and Eureka during the busy summer travel season.

During a Monday board meeting, Redwood Coast Transit Executive Director Joe Gillespie warned that the agency is facing a structural budget problem driven largely by declining state transit revenues.

“The board can certainly do the math there,” Gillespie said while reviewing the preliminary 2026-27 budget. “It shows that we have…a structural deficit in the $200,000 range if it weren’t for that CARES money.”

The agency has been relying on approximately $400,000 annually in remaining federal COVID-era relief funds. Gillespie said only about two years of that funding remain available.

The budget challenge comes as one of the agency’s primary funding sources has sharply declined.

“That number is down to 254,000 and just two years ago it was 500,” Gillespie said of State Transit Assistance funding. “So it’s basically been cut in half.”

The funding source is generated from a statewide diesel fuel excise tax. As diesel sales decline, so does the revenue available to transit agencies.

The impact reaches beyond Del Norte County because Route 20 provides one of the North Coast’s few public transportation links between Crescent City and Humboldt County. The route connects passengers traveling between Smith River, Crescent City, Arcata and Eureka.

Under the approved schedule, the regular morning and afternoon Route 20 trips will continue, but the additional midday summer service will not be added this year.

Gillespie said the seasonal enhancement has proven popular.

“We added a third daily trip to Eureka,” he said. “The south segment of Route 20.”

He added that the extra service allows travelers greater flexibility because “you’re able to do half day trips.”

Board members expressed concern about reducing service.

“It does worry me,” said City Alternate Director Candace Tinkler. “I guess… nobody really wants to hear that we’re reducing our services.”

Tinkler noted that many riders depend on the system to get to work and other destinations.

Gillespie responded that any future reductions would be targeted carefully.

“You got my word that we’re going to look…with a sharp knife at the lowest hanging fruit that should affect the least amount of people,” he said.

The agency estimates that continuing the winter schedule instead of implementing the normal summer enhancement will save approximately $70,000.

Transit officials emphasized that the suspended midday trip is not part of the larger North State Express network that connects travelers farther south through Humboldt County and beyond.

“The morning trip is part of the North State Express going south and our late afternoon evening trip is part of the North State Express going north returning from Sonoma County,” Gillespie said. “The midday trip that we do in the summer doesn’t connect with anything.”

Because the morning and afternoon runs remain in service, the primary intercounty transit connections linking Del Norte County with Humboldt County and points farther south will continue uninterrupted.

The board unanimously approved continuing the winter schedule through September 2026.

Transit officials said additional service reductions could be considered later if funding conditions do not improve. Gillespie said staff may return with proposals identified in the agency’s short-range transit plan that could save an additional $75,000 annually while preserving core transit service.