We’ve said it before and it looks like we’re going to be saying it again, Aqua Express’ service from Kingston to Seattle is a privilege — not a right.

Just four short months after setting sail, and numerous attempts to increase public interest, the private business that many worked so hard to bring to North Kitsap is reducing the number of offered runs. You don’t have to be a financial wizard to figure out why.

Cutbacks of this sort are primarily the result of funding issues. If Aqua Express was getting the ridership it needed to justify the runs, the runs wouldn’t be getting cut next month. Same goes for Kitsap Transit’s No. 66, whose service is also being reduced. The ends need to justify the means, if it doesn’t, reductions are necessary. This is exactly what we’re seeing right now.

Hopefully, the slide ends in June and ridership on both services begins to grow. If it doesn’t, Kitsap Transit will have to again take a good long look at its exorbitant costs of the No. 66 and try to figure out whether they are indeed justified.

That agency has the easier of the two dilemmas. Aqua Express’ situation is far more unique and potentially much more dire. Without continued and growing public support, the company will simply have no choice but to cease its operation. It’s a harsh fact, but a fact nonetheless.

The questions are: How long can the private business continue treading water in increasingly strong financial straights and how long before North End-Seattle commuters realize that they, and they alone, hold the life ring to save it?

Hopefully, come June, they’ll give it a toss.