Blue Water Area Transit is celebrating 40 years in existence, as part of 150 years of public transportation service in the Blue Water Area.  One hundred and fifty years ago, in 1866, Port Huron became one of the nation’s first communities with an operating transit system.  The Blue Water Area soon became one of the nation’s first communities to operate electrified trolleys in the 1880s and then motor coaches in the 1920s. Trolley service was provided by the Port Huron Electric Railway, which was built by the Van Depeole Manufacturing Company of Chicago. After restructuring and expansion, the system became City Electric Railway and provided continuous service until 1930.
Privately operated bus service started in 1927 and continued until an eight-year hiatus from 1968 to 1976. Blue Water Area Transit was started in 1976.  Since BWAT started publicly funded bus service in 1976, the transit agency has carried more than 29 million riders.
Following in the steps of earlier leaders in innovation, BWAT started producing its own compressed natural gas in 1996 and now ranks as Michigan’s largest producer of the alternative fuel. The transit agency runs the state’s largest fleet of natural gas fueled buses and operates four public CNG fueling stations.