||| FROM KUOW NPR NETWORK |||
Unreliable state ferries have left passengers in waterfront communities stranded. Replacement boats are still at least four years away.
Meanwhile, county-run fleets of smaller, faster foot-ferries are preparing to expand, with help from the state.
And that’s making some downtowns better.
The ferry route between Seattle and Bremerton used to have two ferries.
Now it has only one, due to a combination of broken down boats and crew member retirements during the pandemic.
All over Bremerton, people tell stories about the hardship this has caused.
“I’ve had filmmakers show late to their showing because the ferries didn’t run at the right time,” says Amy Camp, who runs the West Side Film Festival in Bremerton. “I hate to see that, and I hate the fact that they’re being denied the chance to connect with other filmmakers and maybe make connections that lead to bigger and better films — because of the ferry schedule.”
She ends up giving out lots of complimentary tickets and merchandise to keep festival attendees happy when they miss things.
“Sometimes we have to make up financially for what the ferry did,” Camp says.
Bremerton is not alone in this hardship. And in many cases, the stakes are much higher than missing a movie screening.
On Shaw Island in the San Juan Islands, kids can’t get home from school, and cancer patients can’t get to their chemotherapy appointments when the interisland ferry is down.
In response to these ferry system issues, many communities are turning to smaller boats.
Dysfunctional and corrupt WSF since the 1980s .
Rick Hughes is proposing a special tax district in the county to increase taxes to buy more ferries to bring in more tourists and develop more homes for part time residents.
Smaller passenger only ferries do not translate well to San Juan County. Lack of population density is the major issue. SJC is still a rural county and will remain so for at least the next two decades, and lack of a large tax base is the limiting financial portion of a new public transportation system..
Passenger ferries can and do pencil out in higher density, high business and corporate tax areas such as described in Kitsap/King county where commuter demand is high and relatively steady.