SPOKANE, Wash. – You may have seen these new Expo-themed buses around Spokane over the past few days.
The Spokane Transit Authority (STA) has a special edition bus wrap to pay homage to Expo 74’s 50th anniversary.
They coincide with the new bus passes that you can get starting May 2nd at the Bloomsday Trade Show. Both the passes and buses have the same design.
On that design, you can see the pavilion and clock tower as iconic landmarks of Riverfront Park.
The butterflies represent the way finders that were at entrances to Riverfront Park for Expo 74.
The hot air balloons represent those used at Expo 74 as well.
There are only three STA buses with this new design, and they are all electric. That’s because Expo 74 was the first environmentally themed world’s fair.
You can see these wraps all summer from May 4 to July 4. STA will unveil a new, more long-term design for their fleet of buses later this year.
“We have this beautiful crown jewel of a park thanks to the tenacity of those leaders that were willing to have that vision and bring the world’s fair to Spokane,” said Carly Cortright with STA. “We’re just proud to be a community partner.”
You will start to see these buses around a lot more on Friday, May 3, as their night service window is extended by three hours on weekdays, and they add all-day coverage on weekends for select routes.
New schedule: weekday service is every 20 minutes starting at 5:41 a.m. until 11:53 p.m., except during peak hours when service is every 10 minutes (6:40 – 8:42 a.m., 3:42 – 5:33 p.m.).
Saturdays from 8:13 a.m. to 11:53 p.m., every 20 minutes.
Sundays from 1:53 p.m. to 9:33 p.m., every 20 minutes.
These are primarily for Route 11, but sometimes these buses will be used for Route 12.
