Editor’s note: Walt Elliott’s regular Ferry Fare column has been suspended until November, as Elliott is a candidate for a Port of Kingston Commission position. Kingston Ferry Advisory Committee members submitted this column.
Forty-one well-spoken ferry riders devoted a fine June evening to hear about and speak their minds on ferry issues. Here’s a compressed summary from the Washington State Ferries community meeting.
Kingston issues
The new summer schedule takes away the last Saturday night sailing and adds a 10:30 p.m. sailing. At the end of the summer there’ll be a rider survey to see if we want to stay with the schedule.
WSF staff members were asked for a holiday schedule on Kingston-Edmonds route. This schedule would use a Saturday schedule when holidays occur on weekdays.
WSF was asked to provide a third boat to address summer backups. This would ease overloading and make money. It would also allow a smaller boat for off- peak use. While the back-up boat could be used, WSF responded it wasn’t available or funded.
There are five sets of traffic sensors imbedded in the pavement along State Route 104. WSF was asked if they could be used to collect data on ferry traffic congestion. WSF said they would investigate.
The State Patrol appears to have lost the recipe on how to run the tally system. Instead of sending cars down from Lindvog in controlled squads, they’re coming down continually, causing gridlock at the intersections.
In Edmonds the arrival/departure of some buses and ferries is not well coordinated, causing the boats to leave before bus riders can get there. Small adjustments to the 12:40 p.m. and 6:15 p.m. ferry departures and possibly others are needed. WSF agreed to look into this. Please let us know if there are any other needed schedule tweaks.
Fare changes
Here are the fare changes being considered by the Transportation Commission (Read this sitting down):
The Legislature’s Transportation Budget tells WSF and the Transportation Commission how much must be collected in fares. While this has been projected to be a 2.5 percent increase, WSF revenue projections are down so expect a 4 percent fare increase in October.
There will also be 25 cent per ticket surcharge for ferry construction. Cars will pay both ways and passengers one way. For a multi-ride card with 16 tickets the surcharge would be $4. Also, there will be a small fare adjustment to keep the vehicle to passenger fare ratio at 3.5 to 1. WSF was cautioned that substantially lower passenger fares would adversely affect Kingston’s SoundRunner.
WSF is considering changing vehicle ticket increments from 0-20 feet, 20-30 feet and 30-40 feet to 0-14 feet, 15-22 feet, 22-30 feet and over-30 feet increments. The 0-14 feet lower fares would be subsidized by a proportional increase in the fares for larger vehicles. WSF will use marks on the pavement to determine car size.
Mark Libby showed photos of large gaps left between cars and recommended that efficiency could be improved if crews directed cars when they park on board.
WSF is considering eliminating the bicycle surcharge.
Someone said a 10-year old was asked to ride her new bike on the ferry rather than to walk it on. WSF will be looking into a more reasonable policy.
A fuel surcharge is being considered when fuel costs are more than budgeted. It will be calculated quarterly and imposed if there’s a 2.5 percent or more increase. WSF is considering 20 percent surcharge cap while the Ferry Advisory Committees have recommended 10 percent. The surcharge raised concerns that WSF would have a blank check for fuel costs. It was remarked that the need for a surcharge could be reduced or eliminated by hedging fuel costs.
Other stuff
Ferry captains will become a part of WSF management so that they will also be responsible for the performance goals the Legislature is assigning to WSF.
WSF is working with the Coast Guard to see if crew numbers can be lowered when runs have few riders.
WSF is aware of and is addressing the impact of viaduct and sea-wall construction on congestion at the Seattle terminal.
