Belfair Park & Ride officially open

Park & Ride already popular with commuters

Matt Baide | Jun 02, 20220

After many delays, Mason Transit Authority’s Belfair Park & Ride officially opened May 23 on Northeast Log Yard Road.

“I’ve been hearing from a couple of drivers that have been up here that they’re really enjoying having a space to work out of and happy to have a permanent place to be for their breaks and rest breaks up in the north county area,” MTA General Manager Amy Asher told the Herald. “Our park and ride’s getting used. We have a lot of the folks from the worker-driver program parking here every day and we hope to see more use as the summer months go on.”

MTA is not fully moved into the new space yet. The driver area of the building is moved into and is being used by drivers, along with a full kitchen for staff to make meals while using the facility.

Asher said they will be moving some furniture in for a supervisor’s office and the meeting room, and after that, it will be fully functional. The MTA’s monthly board meeting will be in Belfair for the July meeting.

The building is not open to the public at this time but it does have a bus stop with a shelter outside the building. If MTA staffs the building enough, Asher said they would open the building to the public.

“We built this building with the vision of growing into it in the future,” Asher said. “We know that Belfair and the north county area is poised for a lot of growth and we plan on growing with it and so as the Belfair area continues to develop and we need more service in the north county area, we’ll probably be staffing this in the future.”

MTA has closed the Roy Boad Road and the Assembly of God temporary park and rides and is now operating in Belfair exclusively out of the new facility on Log Yard Road.

After opening on Monday, a steady number of cars have been using the park and ride.

“I’m thrilled with the amount of usage it’s already getting,” Asher said. “We’ve got 15 to 20 cars that are already out there during the morning commute and we’ve got 100 parking spaces here so we’ve got plenty of room for people to use the space here and I hope that as commuters are looking to save gas, they come and use this as a meeting place to either meet up with each other and commute together or even better would be to hop on an MTA bus and use it as their starting point for their adventures either in Mason County or as they head out to Kitsap County.”

After numerous delays due to electrical panels, fire marshals being unavailable and supply chain problems, Asher says it was all worth it to get the Belfair Park and Ride to this point.

“Building a building during COVID while there have been supply chain issues and health issues with staff who are trying to build it, they’ve done a really great job communicating and staying as much as they can on time and within budget,” Asher said.

Routes 3 and 23 come through the Belfair Park & Ride. With all the park and rides open, Asher said more might be coming in the future.

“It’s really great. I’m coming in at the tail end of this massive project but it feels really good to watch the staff and the board members that have been involved throughout the whole life of the project,” Asher said. “I’m very excited to see it finalized and done and have these great community assets ready for the public to be used.”