Full speed ahead on private ferry service

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most e-mailed articles

There will be no galley service on the state ferries this summer, admits Washington State Ferries Director Mike Thorne. When Aunt Tilly comes out this summer for that dazzling trip to Winslow and gawks at the scenery and the magnificence of living here, there'll be no hot chowder for Tilly.

This is a failure of both the employee unions and government and bears the whiff of powerful institutions considering ferry customers last.

Thorne sees a silver lining in this, and said last week in a visit to The Seattle Times that new ferry construction (the state plans four new ones) may include roll-on, roll-off food containers and other innovations. The ferry service, it turns out, will have airplane food.

But it's also the fact that Washington ferries are getting out of the passenger-only service, and a region that is growing in modules of urban centers around the Sound will need connections more than Aunt Tilly ever imagines.

Now comes Cary Bozeman, mayor of Bremerton, who says the following: "We are going to figure out a way to build a high-speed passenger ferry, from Bremerton to Seattle in less than 35 minutes, and we are going to build and operate the boat in the next three years."

Bozeman is not kidding. He says, thanks to U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, Bremerton is the recipient of $600,000 for a Water Transportation Research Institute to be located in the city. Its job is to figure out a boat that will offer 35-minute transit to Seattle from Bremerton without wake damage to the shoreline.

"We know when we get to that level of service, we attract young professionals who live in Bremerton and work in Seattle," Bozeman said.

The federal grant money just arrived last week and will be administered by Washington Department of Transportation in Bremerton. Creation of a research center will mean that in about 18 months, a boat design should emerge, according to Bozeman. Pacific International Engineering will do the hull research. The goal is a zippier ferry, something that will not leave behind the damage from big wakes, and not the 200- to 300-passenger vessels the state ferry service prefers. "We'll eventually buy three or four boats," Bozeman said. "They will be run by Kitsap Transportation with private operators."

The energetic mayor of Bremerton may be a tad optimistic if he thinks private operators can get that chicken past the wolf of the ferry unions. But let's admit the momentum for more passenger ferries is real, and moving across the inland sea of Puget Sound is imperative to a thriving region. If the state cannot afford to be in the passenger-ferry business, why should Bremerton, Seattle, Everett, Port Townsend or Kitsap County suffer?

That's not far from the message Thorne is delivering all over the state. Thorne said he believes the system can get much greater efficiencies from the four new boats, and that working with the unions for "critical mission" work at places such as Eagle Harbor can provide a higher level of service. State law mandates the four new state ferries be built in Washington.

Bozeman thinks the state ferry system should do its own job, but also get out of the way. "We can do this without a lot of government managing the ferry system," Bozeman said.

"The region is missing a bet not to run a local ferry system," Thorne said. He referred to the hiccuping local transportation plan that would have poured millions into local projects. Both Thorne and Bozeman seemed to be talking about two things: connections and options.

Connecting Bremerton and Seattle across the water without bridges is vital. Why can't we think of ourselves as a water-borne region with lots of options for ferry service going to lots of new places?

Stagnation is not our friend. Old ways of thinking of ferries is not the future's friend, either.

James F. Vesely's column appears Sunday on editorial pages of The Times. His e-mail address is: jvesely@seattletimes.com