Bus route changes aimed at WWU service, helping ease ‘food deserts’

Whatcom Transportation Authority is proposing several changes to its routes and schedules, with major adjustments aimed at bus riders who live in the Birchwood neighborhood and eastern Whatcom County — areas with no supermarkets nearby.

Other revisions seek to make routes around Western Washington University more efficient, said Rick Nicholson, WTA’s director of service development.

“Most of the routes serving Western are affected,” Nicholson said Tuesday in an interview, adding that WWU’s main route through campus frequently runs late.

“It’s just taking longer and longer,” he said.