KINGSTON — A new summer schedule that will trim sailings from the Kingston to Edmonds ferry route was met with a wave of protest Tuesday at a meeting in Kingston.
The schedule (posted below) will include two fewer sailings a day from Monday through Thursday and on Saturday, eliminate one ferry on Sunday but maintain service on Friday. The goal is to spread out time between sailings and keep ferries running on time on the route, which is plagued by late boats and long waiting lines. The schedule takes effect in late June.
Many riders at the Tuesday meeting told Washington State Ferries planners they’d rather have late boats than lose runs.
“I don’t see how this is going to benefit the ridership,” Nancy Andrist of Kingston said.
Ferries Planning Director Ray Deardorf said the route already effectively loses sailings with boats running more than a half hour late some days during the summer. The late boats only add to traffic chaos along State Route 104 in Kingston, he said.
“We’ve got to get out of this cycle of having late boats, because it’s exacerbating the problem,” Deardorf said.
Ferries planners have been vetting the new schedule with riders and Ferry Advisory Committees over the past year.
Kingston Ferry Advisory Committee member Walt Elliott said he was surprised by the strong negative reaction to the schedule Tuesday. He said commuters at earlier meetings supported schedule changes if they could get the ferries running on time.
“We got a very much different reaction,” Elliott said.
They plan to roll it out with a series of terminal and procedure improvements aimed at making the route more efficient, mostly on the Edmonds side of the water.
Washington State Ferries could begin moving vehicles down from the upper lot at the Edmonds dock sooner and opening the third lane on the dock to general traffic. It will work with other agencies to control traffic in the busy intersection above the landing, where cars, buses, trains and pedestrians mingle and it will investigate whether the raised railroad track can be made less severe for cars loading onto the ferry.
The success of the schedule changes and terminal improvements will be evaluated at the end of the summer, Deardorf said.
Below is a copy of the 2010 Kingston/Edmonds summer ferry schedule, courtesy Washington State Ferries.
