State employee services

The State Agency CTR Program provides participating state worksites the following free services:

Vanpool Program – 100 Percent Fare Free!

The Legislature has provided funding for all state agency employees (with a few exceptions) to cover 100 percent of the cost of a qualifying vanpool fare when participating in a public transit agency vanpool program. This program is managed by the Washington State Department of Transportation. Not all transit agencies have a vanpool program, so check the current list of vanpool providers to see if your local transit agency offers this benefit. Multiple state agencies have executed agreements (PDF 63KB) with WSDOT to offer this benefit to their employees.

Are you a current or interested vanpool participant? Sign up for this new benefit by connecting with your agency’s Employee Transportation Coordinator. They can provide you with a participant agreement form.

Are you a state agency representative who wants to provide the vanpool benefit? Your agency will need to sign an Interagency Agreement with WSDOT. Contact StateAgencyCTR@wsdot.wa.gov to learn more.

Guaranteed Ride Home

State employees are eligible for a free ride home in cases of emergency on any day the employee commuted to work other than by driving alone. Alternate commute modes include transit, vanpools, carpools, biking, or walking. Emergency Ride Home contracts are held by the CTR program at the Department of Transportation (WSDOT). Funding is allocated by the Legislature. These free rides home can be cab/Uber/Lyft depending on the contract and/or location. See county specific information below.

Thurston County: State Agency Free Emergency Ride (SAFE) Home Program

King County – Home Free Guarantee

Spokane County: Guaranteed Ride Home

Commute Smart Northwest Guaranteed Ride Home

ORCA Program

Benefit-eligible state employees with official duty stations in King, Pierce, or Snohomish counties are eligible for a fare-free ORCA pass. The ORCA card is a benefit provided by the Legislature. It supports trip reduction for state employees.

Note: The ORCA Program is not part of the state agency CTR Program.

The ORCA card may be used for any trip regardless of origin, destination, or frequency, including personal use.

Available services:

Bus services provided by Community Transit, Everett Transit, King County Metro, Kitsap Transit, Pierce Transit, and Sound Transit
Sound Transit Link light rail and Sounder commuter rail
Seattle Streetcar
Seattle Monorail
King County Water Taxi
Kitsap Transit foot and fast ferries
Vanpool/Vanshare

Unavailable services:

WSDOT ferries
Services that do not use ORCA for processing fares

State agency operations

Card deactivations

State agencies may request card deactivations by completing the ORCA Deactivation Form. Card deactivations are processed at least twice per month. Please have the following information available:

Requesting agency
Name of the requester (this is the person who manages access to cards and tracks which employees lose access to the card)
Card ID number and manufacturing ID (see image)

Requesting new cards

State agencies may request new cards by completing the ORCA Card Request Form.

ORCA Resources

For more information, please send an email to wsdotORCA@wsdot.wa.gov

The State Agency Program promotes CTR-supportive design elements participating state worksites:

Bike cages on campus

Lockable bicycle cages are located in parking facilities around the Capitol Campus. The cages are free to state employees who commute by bicycle. Each cage is equipped with bicycle racks and can be accessed by state employees who have registered and have received an assigned code. Your code will give you access to all cages on the capitol campus. To receive a unique access code, complete a Registration and Agreement with the Department of Enterprise Services.

Rideshare parking on campus

Many state worksites have spaces in their parking lots reserved for those who choose to carpool or vanpool. Additionally, they are often free to use as long as you are vanpooling/carpooling, whereas many state locations will charge you for parking a single occupancy vehicle.