The Humboldt County Association of Governments heard that Humboldt Transit Authority recorded more than 700,000 rides in its latest fiscal year while a temporary hydrogen-fueling problem was limiting the number of hydrogen buses available to operate.
The disclosure came during HCAOG’s Sept. 17 meeting, which included an update from HTA General Manager Katie Collender on Ride Humboldt Flex and a presentation on a North State hydrogen-fueling network study. The meeting agenda identifies Collender as the HTA presenter and lists the hydrogen-network presentation as a meeting item.
The available public record does not provide an exact fiscal-year total or define whether “rides” refers to boardings, unlinked passenger trips or an HTA-specific combination of services. It also does not identify the hydrogen-fueling equipment problem, when it began, how many buses were affected, whether repairs are complete or whether riders experienced route or schedule changes.
That leaves the two developments significant but only partly documented: the ridership figure suggests transit use exceeded 700,000 trips under the agency’s measure, while reduced hydrogen-bus availability could constrain fleet capacity. HTA’s underlying annual ridership tables and an incident timeline for the fueling problem would be needed to determine the scale of either development.
