THE COMMUTE
Fast ferry rides broached, but a long way off
Ed Friedrich
Fast ferry rides could be part of Armed Forces Day weekend.
Bremerton Mayor Patty Lent and County Commissioner Charlotte Garrido suggested this week during a Kitsap Transit subcommittee meeting that the Rich Passage 1 make demonstration runs so residents can experience it before voting on cross-Sound service, probably in November.
The 118-seat ferry can cross between Bremerton and Seattle in half an hour without harming Rich Passage beaches. There's no money to operate it, however, hence a sales tax increase will likely be going to voters.
Lent proposed to run the ferry Saturday, May 21, the day of the big Bremerton parade. Garrido wanted commuters to get a taste of it on a weekday. The two agreed on May 19-21. Now it's a matter of pulling it off.
First, it would have to be approved by the full nine-person transit board. Not all members are crazy about fast ferries, though the majority seem to be.
Then the Rich Passage 1 would have to be available. It's being stored at Port Townsend Boat Haven and needs a little work before getting back in the water, said Kitsap Transit service and capital development director Steffani Lillie. It would need to pass an annual Coast Guard inspection, which shouldn't be a problem. A crew would have to be lined up.
And there's the matter of paying it — primarily fuel, labor and insurance. Lent believes she can find a sponsor for the insurance, which she estimates at $8,000. Finance director Paul Shinners is examining the cost. Lent said $70,000 generated from fares during a three-month testing period in 2012 could be spent on demonstration trips. That money is long gone, however. It offset some of the cost of providing the 2012 service, said Shinners.
Permission would have to be granted by the Federal Transit Administration to use the Rich Passage in such a way and it would determine whether fares could be collected, Lillie said.
Executive director John Clauson, who was out of town and didn't attend Tuesday's meeting, is concerned about Lent and Garrido's proposal coming off as a foregone conclusion.
"We're a long ways from that," he said. "No. 1, two members do not make a quorum. That would have to be a full board decision because it would have to be a budget expenditure. Currently we don't have the funds to operate it. The board's in control of it. They can do what they want."
"There's an awful lot that would go into putting that into operation, though it's not something we couldn't do."
In January 2015, Lent pushed for the RP1 to provide trips to Seahawks playoff games. Passengers would've paid $25 per round trip. She requested contributions from five large companies, but they said they couldn't act quickly enough.