Kitsap Mall shuttle stop up and operating

Published 5:32 pm Monday, April 11, 2011

Kitsap Transit shuttles ferrying riders between the mall and a temporary bus stop on Randall Way Monday.

Mall management had declined to renew the transit agency’s lease that allowed a bus transfer station next to the mall’s west entrance, forcing the agency off mall property.

After making the announcement, management said an unnamed retailer did not want a transfer station in front of its new store. The mall also plans to undergo $1 million in renovations to three entrances, including the west entrance.

Even though a bus stop has returned to mall property, the service is not the same as before.

“It’s reduced quite a bit. People destined to the mall will have to transfer,” John Clauson, service development director of Kitsap Transit, said Tuesday. One bus will go in and out of the mall four times in an hour coming to and from the Randall Way stop, he added.

The temporary Randall Way stop will be in use for up to 120 days — its use began at the beginning of March — until the new transfer station at Clear Creek Road near Greaves Way is built. The transit agency is underway with the design work for the Clear Creek Road transfer station, Clauson said.