Vessel construction put on fast track ahead of terminal improvements

The Senate Transportation Committee passed a budget bill on March 30 that took several positive steps for ferry commuters, avoiding any cuts in service, limiting fare increases to 2.5 percent and focusing on vessel construction rather than terminal construction.

During the hearing,Sen. Kevin Ranker, D-San Juan Island, and Sen. Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor offered an amendment to the Senate’s proposed transportation budget to allow a new 144-car vessel to be built for Washington State Ferries sooner than currently scheduled.

“Thousands of people all over the Puget Sound rely on efficient ferry service every day to get to work, get to school and get to the doctor’s office,” said Ranker. “These people expect us to improve capacity throughout the system. To do this, we must build the larger 144-car ferries sooner in order to provide relief throughout the system.”

The amendment offered by the two ferry district legislators would have reprioritized ferry construction by reducing the number of 64-car vessels from four to three and would have advanced the construction of one 144-car ferry to the 2011-13 biennium.

“The Senate transportation budget made some important progress for ferry commuters. It avoided cuts in service, focused on vessels rather than terminals, and provided some protection from significant fare increases,” Kilmer said.  “That said, I think it’s clear that we need to provide a 144-car vessel sooner. In our area we’ve seen first-hand the need for added capacity in the ferry system and the need to ensure adequate back-up vessels when we’ve got service problems.”

Ranker and Kilmer explained to their colleagues on the Senate Transportation Committee that the amendment recognized the need to prioritize new ferries on the Keystone-Port Townsend route, did not require additional resources in the 2009-11biennium and added ferry capacity to the entire system sooner than the currently proposed budget.

“I agree that the Keystone-Port Townsend route needs new vessels immediately and that those boats have to be smaller and more maneuverable than the ones we use on the rest of the routes,” said Ranker. “But every ferry community is hurting from a lack of capacity and I think we can solve both problems if we approach things a little differently.”

Although the amendment was not adopted, both Ranker and Kilmer agreed that the overall budget was something they could both support. The budget bill passed with near unanimous support from the committee.

“I think increasing vessel capacity system-wide could make a good budget even better,” said Ranker. “But maintaining the Anacortes-Sidney Ferry and limiting increases in fares to no more than 2.5 percent have been among my top priorities and I’m very glad we managed to include those in this budget. We’re still coming out ahead.”

The Senate and House of Representatives will each pass a proposed transportation budget and differences will be reconciled before a final transportation budget is passed by the Legislature.