Passenger-only ferries have a growing fan club

PORT TOWNSEND — A campaign is being mounted to retain passenger-only ferry service between Port Townsend and Seattle.

Ridership has been growing daily and some departures have been sold out since the route was instituted after the state's only vehicle-and-passenger vessels that could operate on the Port Townsend-Keystone run were pulled from service last month for safety reasons, said Tim Caldwell, Chamber of Commerce director. The round-trip fare is $6.70.

Kyle Montgomery and other riders have started a Web site, Seattle2PT.com, with an online petition for supporters to "unify and send a clear message to Washington State Ferries and the state of Washington that the passenger-only run between Port Townsend and downtown Seattle must be kept."

The fast ferry Snohomish, which makes four round trips a day, could carry 350 passengers, but it is limited to 149 without the time-consuming preparation of a safety and security plan. Each crossing takes 90 minutes.

The service was added Dec. 13 to help businesses through the holiday season and is scheduled to end Jan. 6.

The Whidbey Island route was closed Nov. 20 after the four aging Steel Electric ferries, the oldest in the nation still in use on saltwater routes, were withdrawn from service and retired because of rust and corrosion.

Montgomery, 29, a product manager for a logistics company, has been commuting for 10 years to Seattle from Jefferson County, where his family has lived for three generations.

Normally he drives from Port Ludlow to Bainbridge Island, then parks and boards a car ferry. All told, the trip takes 2 ½ hours each way, an hour longer than the passenger-only ferry. Regular fast-ferry service to and from Seattle would be a gateway to living-wage jobs and allow more young adults to remain on the Olympic Peninsula, he said.

"I want to raise my kids here because I love the area," Montgomery said. "There's no better place.

"And I love the opportunity to work in Seattle.

"It's a mixed blessing."

Improved access

Web-site visitors have written that a fast ferry also would open access to colleges, medical appointments and cultural events in Seattle while improving tourist access to Port Townsend. Some have suggested a more economical boat than the Snohomish, which costs abut $13,700 to operate, including $8,000 for fuel.

The state, however, is getting out of the passenger-ferry business. King County is taking over the state's last state passenger-only route, which links Seattle and Vashon Island.

One possibility for a public-private partnership to maintain service to Port Townsend, according to Montgomery and Caldwell, is joining forces with organizers in Kingston who want a passenger-only link to downtown Seattle for weekday commuters. The same vessel, they suggest, could be used for weekend service to Port Townsend.

"It would give us at least 52 opportunities a year to have service," Caldwell said. "If a boat's underutilized on weekends, we could sell that niche. We certainly have some very good demonstration data that says this boat does work."

Old ferries inspected

Meanwhile, the Coast Guard has ordered closer inspections of corrosion in the hulls of the two oldest ferries still operated by the state.

The Rhododendron, launched in 1947, and the Evergreen State, which dates from 1954, were allowed to return to service pending tests over the weekend to determine the thickness of steel in corroded areas of the hull, said Lt. Cmdr. Todd Howard, Coast Guard chief of vessel inspections in Seattle.

The work consists of scraping away paint and corrosion inside the hull until workers reach clean steel, Howard explained on Monday.

"Even though we did find some larger areas in these other two older boats, they are safe to operate on the runs," Howard said.

Hull thickness tests also are planned in the coming days for the Walla Walla, built in 1973, the Kittitas (1980) and Cathlamet (1981) after smaller areas of corrosion were found on those boats, Howard said.