The nonprofit Cooperative Alliance for Seacoast Transportation, more commonly known as COAST, recently released its 2025 Annual Impact Report. According to the report, demand and ridership across both their fixed route and demand response services increased in FY25. Results from its 2025 customer survey highlight the increasing importance that riders place on both access to COAST’s transit services and its affordability.
In FY25, COAST customers took 411,467 rides, traveling an estimated 2,708,901 million miles—representing increases in both areas over FY24. These connections contributed an estimated $33 million dollars to the regional economy.
COAST’s bi-annual survey polled customers and other Seacoast residents about a variety of topics including reasons for using public transportation, the quality of COAST services, and the degree of importance of COAST services in their lives.
While there were many consistencies between the 2023 and 2025 customer survey results, including COAST’s high ratings related to the quality of our service, friendliness of the staff, clean vehicles and on-time performance, there were several notable shifts since the last survey:
Affordability More Important Than Ever—The importance of affordability increased significantly with 75% of respondents indicating that they ride COAST because of its affordability (up from 25% in 2023).
Non-senior ridership growing—The overall percentage of riders in all age categories between 18-55 increased. The largest percentage increase (+7%) was seen in the 25-34 age range on COAST’s demand response services.
Making More Connections for Life—The percentage of respondents who reported using COAST to get work (+26%), medical appointments (+31%), shopping (+43%) and recreation/community/social activities (25%) all increased significantly across both fixed route and demand response services.
More Portsmouth Boardings—Portsmouth is now ranked #2 for passenger boardings, behind Dover and followed by Rochester, then Somersworth.
People’s Only Option for Access—More than a quarter of riders surveyed said they would have no other transportation option if COAST were not available (+8% overall; +10% on fixed route).
“Affordable housing, jobs, social supports and medical services are dispersed broadly across the Seacoast region, requiring travel between communities. COAST is what connects the people, businesses and communities across our region,” said Rad Nichols, COAST Executive Director. “As household budgets are increasingly pinched, we’re proud to be able to offer everyone access to the opportunities they need to succeed.”
The FY25 Annual Impact Report also highlights progress made on COAST’s ongoing capital campaign. The campaign seeks to raise the remaining $5.4M of the $19.5 million needed to build a new maintenance, operations, and administrative facility at their current location in Dover.
“Our recently released impact report underscores how public transportation both drives the Seacoast’s economy and makes a meaningful impact in the lives of those who rely on our services,” said Nichols. “As we continue our fundraising work, we look forward to sharing with prospective donors how investing in public transportation pays dividends for us all.”
The FY25 Annual Impact Report as well as the full results of the 2025 customer survey can be found at coastbus.org.