— from GoSkagit.com —
The Elwha ferry will be retired from service if the state Legislature cuts funding for it, a move that would impact the Anacortes to Sidney, British Columbia, route and further strain the Washington State Ferries system.
Gov. Jay Inslee’s supplemental budget does not include funding to operate the 52-year-old Elwha, which is out of service and in need of repairs, said State Ferries spokesperson Ian Sterling.
If the Elwha is retired, the only ferry certified to make the international crossing would be the Chelan.
Losing the Elwha would leave State Ferries with 21 boats in its fleet. Sterling said while the ferry system needs 19 to operate its summer routes, at least two ferries are out for maintenance at any given time, and breakdowns and incidents such as crab pot entanglements take boats out of service.
He said the state has funded a new vessel — a hybrid-electric ferry — but it is not expected to be in service until 2023.
Anacortes Mayor Laurie Gere said in an emailed statement Wednesday that the state should continue to fund the Elwha until it builds new ferries.
“The reduction in service would be devastating to this community,” Gere said in the statement. “The (Anacortes-to-Sidney) international tourism route contributes to the multi-billion dollar tourism industry in our state. … We believe the best path forward is to keep the international ferry route whole and work to fund building of new ferry vessels. It is short-sighted to reduce this self-supporting ferry route.”
Gere said the route generates an estimated $1.6 million in annual tax revenue for Anacortes, such as tax collected by hotels and motels.
A 2007 report prepared for the Economic Development Alliance of Skagit County found the Anacortes-to-Sidney ferry service directly and indirectly supported more than 1,400 jobs, $30 million in annual payroll and $126 million in annual spending in the Northern Puget Sound region.
“We’ve had (the run) for 99 years,” said Stephanie Hamilton, executive director of the Anacortes Chamber of Commerce. “It’s a great economic tie to the community.”
She said the chamber board passed a resolution Tuesday in support of strategies to save the Elwha ferry.
In 2019, about 116,000 people rode the Anacortes/Sidney route, according to State Ferries statistics.
Funding for transportation projects has been in jeopardy in light of Initiative 976 — the voter-approved measure that cut car tab fees to $30 and is expected to lead to a loss of $1.9 billion over six years.
State Sen. Liz Lovelett, D-Anacortes, said Tuesday it was difficult to find support among legislators for continuing to fund the Elwha.
“(The Elwha) is riddled with problems even after dumping money into it,” she said. “It was hard to figure out a path forward to finance keeping a nearly 60-year-old boat going at this point.”
Lovelett said her focus now is on maintaining service on the Anacortes/Sidney and Anacortes/San Juan Island routes, where the Elwha also operates.
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So what would it take to get another ferry certified? Would that be more expensive than the repairs on the Elwha?
Is Sidney a “self-supporting ferry route?” Well, not exactly; in fact, not even close. Fare revenues on the route cover only about 70% of operating expenses–mostly fuel and labor. Capital costs for the ferries and terminals include the unique requirements to maintain SOLAS (Safety of Life at Sea) qualifications which are only needed for boats serving the international route. Those outlays are part of the overall transportation budget and not fare-related.
While the intrastate San Juan Islands services are also funded in the same way while recovering even less of their operating expenses from fares, those routes serve about 15 times as many riders as the Sidney service while providing islanders with critical links to the mainland. That is a very different mission from the almost exclusively visitor-related ridership on the international route.
In times of significant statewide fiscal constraints, the fact remains that transportation needs must be prioritized, and with the ferry system serving some 25 million customers each year, the 130 thousand riders to and from Sidney cannot justify keeping an aging vessel in need of significant repairs (the Elwha) in service.
Thanks to Tim Eyman, who should be in jail instead of continuing to bankrupt state transportation systems.
Reports the Victoria Clipper, a for profit enterprise, is interested in providing this service which would indicate there is a profit to be made despite some others comments. However, Senator Lovelett appears to be against a private operator participating because she thinks service will degrade and costs go up. Look folks….in Washington State we have private bus service to airports (Bellaire Shuttle), Uber, Lift, private garbage collection (Waste Management) and even a private prison all supplementing similar state and municipal services. I ask the state legislators to consider this option. What have you got to lose?