BREMERTON – Passenger fares for the Bremerton-Seattle, Bainbridge Island-Seattle and Kingston-Edmonds ferry routes are set to go from $8 to $8.10 in October, and then to $8.20 by May, 2016.

Several citizens spoke with members of the Washington State Transportation Commission – the board in charge of the fares – at a July 22 meeting at the Kitsap Conference Center. They asked the commission to tweak fares. Commission members listened to what they had to say, but noted that, ultimately, the commission’s options on the new fares were limited.

The commission must set rates to cover ferry system operating and maintenance costs of $357.2 million for the 2015-2017 biennium, as directed by the state legislature. To meet that goal, the WSTC determined automobile ferry rates must go up 2.5 percent and passenger fares 1 percent in October, and then again by 2.5 and 1 percent in May, 2016.

For standard size vehicles the rate would go from the current fare of $13.90 to $14.25 in October and then to $14.60 in May, 2016.

A key feature of the proposal is to continue the process of widening the price differential between vehicle and passenger fares. Widening this differential reflects the lower cost of carrying passengers and encourages more customers to travel as walk-ons.

“It changes the relationship between vehicle fares and passenger fares to favor passengers slightly more and because of that better aligns pricing with available capacity on most Washington State ferry routes,” said Ray Deardorf, planning director for the Washington State Department of Transportation ferries division.

“We have lots of capacity for passengers and not so much extra capacity for vehicles,” he said.

“This would be the fourth consecutive year in a row that passenger fares have gone up at a rate lower than vehicle fares. It doesn’t sound like much but there’s a cumulative effect.

“The policy goals that are trying to (be) achieved are the recognition of there’s a higher cost of serving vehicles. We feel that there would be a modest shift toward pricing that encourages walk-on and HOV customers. We have room for passenger capacity but not so much room for vehicles. This actually kind of restores the traditional relationship that we had between passenger and vehicle fares that we had back in the early part of the last decade,” Deardorf said.

WSTC Vice Chair Joe Tortorelli said the Washington Department of Transportation has put a lot of effort into learning what changes would be most acceptable to the public.

“They’re beautiful boats,” Tortorelli said, and the WSTC wanted to make the changes agreeable to users.

Several people spoke during the meeting:

• Adam Brockus lives in Manette and is a member of the Ferry Advisory Committee, or FAC. He said he uses the ferry to visit family in Seattle, for work, for arts and entertainment in Seattle and to attend Mariners games. Brockus said he was pleased the legislature was able to keep fares around 2.5 percent.

“If we really are wanting to push more passengers rather than more vehicles – both are going up – then we really need to say it and also put in what is definitely necessary – more transit connections over on the Seattle side. We have great transit connections here (in Kitsap),” Brockus said.

“We take these every day,” Brockus said of Puget Sound’s “marine highways.” He added all riders wanted clean, well-maintained ferries.

• Sue Strachan lives in Bremerton, works in Seattle and is also a FAC member. She said she took the ferry almost every day as a foot passenger. From the Seattle terminal to her place of work was just a 20-minute walk, she said, so she didn’t need to use mass transit in Seattle. For her to take a round-trip ferry ride to Seattle and back for $8 is affordable for her, she said, but noted that cost might be burdensome for others.

“Riding the ferry is cool. It’s way better than riding the bus. You can go outside, you can move away from somebody you don’t want to sit by. There’s a restroom, you can have a beer on the way home. It’s cool. It’s a great asset and you should recognize how valuable it is,” Strachan told the WSTC commissioners.

Strachan said she realized fares needed to go up, but requested that price hikes be as small and as infrequent as possible.

• Linda Lovgren Houlton grew up in Seattle but lives in Bremerton now.

“Being a senior citizen, I have my doctors, my specialists, are all in Seattle,” she said. The cost of shipping a vehicle and paying for Seattle parking was a burden, she said.

“All of the sudden it takes $40 to go in to your doctor in Seattle and park. I mean, that’s groceries for a week,” she said.

Houlton said people who use cars on the ferry needed a break. Being dropped off at the Seattle ferry terminal was fine for tourists, she said. “They’re wandering around down by Ivar’s and they’re going on the ferris wheel, (but) those of us who are in there on business that can’t sprint up the hills, you know, it’s really a problem.”

WSTC Executive Director Reema Griffith said she understood where Houlton was coming from.

“In fact, we’ve had conversations for the last few days with King County Metro and with Puget Sound regional governance bodies about this very issue,” Griffith said.

“The commission has been harping on this for years and has been advocating to the legislature, to the governor, to King County that it’s ridiculous that the biggest city in the state does not have better transit service down at the ferry terminal. It’s such a vital link to our transportation system.

“We have to make sure the links are there so we make it easy for people to get out of their car,” Griffith said.

• Martha Dalbeck, of Bremerton, is also a FAC member. The ferries were special and unique she said. She said riders and the commission were on the same side. She said ferry riders were already paying enough.

“We have an astronomical fare box recovery compared to any modality of transportation,” Dalbeck said.

• Greg Beardsley, of Vashon Island, was opposed to raising fares differently for passengers and vehicles.

“It is a little unfair to increase fares for those who have to drive because we have few transit opportunities” on Vashon Island, Beardsley said. Because of the limited mass transit options on the island, residents needed cars for shopping and hospital access off-island.

“Increasing the fares for those people that must drive – for a lot of reasons – to me is unfair,” he said.

• Nick Gourley, of Port Orchard,  said he loved the unique ferry system, but said he thought the ferries weren’t as clean as they used to be and was not happy with ferry delays.

“As a consumer, I like to get my money’s worth,” Gourley said.

“And so if I’m paying for (higher fares), what am I getting in return? But if I’m getting delayed where I’m having to now adjust my schedule, I don’t think it’s very fair to ask people to pay more for a product or a quality they’re not getting.

“We’re the consumers. Want more? OK, please help us understand why you want more. Is it because operating costs have gone up? Maintenance cost have gone up?”

Riders were against fare increases he said, but “the vote I can tell you now is already ‘yes’ … no matter what the public had to say.”

Griffith responded to the comments:

“I want to just help you guys understand a little bit of our reality,” Griffith said.

The legislature said ferry riders have to come up with $357 million by June 30 of 2017, she said.

“That $357 million is not negotiable. It’s given to us. The commission is told, ‘You go figure it out; you go get the money.’ State taxpayers are contributing about 30 percent to subsidize the operations and 100 percent for capital investment. So the ferry system got another new boat funded in this package, we got some terminal improvements and so the state taxpayers – through the gas tax – are contributing that to the system. And that’s 100 percent – riders don’t pay that.

“So the problem we face is that we’re given this number and we’re told you go hit it. So who’s going to carry the liability, who’s going to bring the money to the table is the question. And from a system perspective and an operational perspective, we have cars which are very expensive to move across the water and we got excess passenger capacity right now. And so it doesn’t cost us any more money to move a bunch of people that just either walk on or carpool or take your kids … It’s when those cars move on the decks that we start running into capacity problems.

“The legislature has been looking at service cuts, route cuts. We’ve come from the hatchet to saying, ‘Well, we’re going to maintain it but riders have to pick up a little more this biennium, this two-year cycle.’ And so it’s not good news. And this is just to  keep it status-quo. It’s not to make the boats prettier or give you more service. We’re trying to (keep) our nose above water so that it doesn’t start sinking. But that’s kind of the desperate point we’re at.

“We’ve seen an uptick in ridership. And we’re hoping this trend continues as the economy picks up because if there’s more riders paying that’s going to relieve everybody. If we see growth on the west side of the sound and more people crossing the Puget Sound that’s going to help everybody. We’re rooting for that because the commission, the last thing they want to do … is keep telling you that you got to pay more, you got to pay more. But at the same time, nothing is free. And the system is aging and it’s aging at a rapid rate. And the boats are all getting to the point where some are becoming safety considerations. We don’t have backup boats left any more. The whole thing is rather desperate and it’s hard to keep paying but at the same time they have very little flexibility because the legislature says in law you have to have fares set by Oct. 1. They have to be in effect. And the reason they’ve kind of moved to this October-May (fare rate increase schedule) is because then you end up with over a year of no fare increase because between May of next year you won’t see another fare increase until October of 2017 at the earliest. And that’s the way it’s been for the last four years.

“We don’t have any choice. (The commission) have a fiduciary responsibility to hit that target or the legislature is going to say, ‘Well, you came up short so now we’ve got to cut.’ Nobody wants that. This is kind of the predicament we’re in.

“We hear you and I want to tell you everything you guys are saying we’re recording and we take to the legislature and the governor every year. We are beating the drum and we’re trying, we’re trying hard. But as you know, Olympia is a tough grind. And it’s us, and it’s 300 other causes at the table going, ‘Oh! But well we need more money and we need more money’ and these decision makers, they raised the gas tax almost 12 cents to help try to stop the hemorrhaging in our system across the state.

“So it’s not a fun time but we’re hoping. We’re out of the recession. We’re seeing population growth, we’re seeing ridership growth – slowly. And maybe two years from now this won’t be an issue.”

“I just want you to know that we’re listening. And we are carrying that water … we’re in the middle getting pulled and we don’t have the power to fix it, unfortunately.”

The commission is expected to make a final vote on the new fares after a final hearing from 10 a.m. to noon Tuesday, Aug. 4, at the Puget Sound Regional Council’s Board Room, 1011 Western Ave., Suite 500, in Seattle.

For more information, visit the commissions website at www.wstc.wa.gov.