San Juans to see less ferry service

Concluding that there will be no more money coming from the legislature, and with a need to build new ferries, Washington State Ferries Chief Executive Officer Mike Thorne has unveiled a strategy that is sure to hurt some riders.

But the ferry system’s Public Information Officer Pat Patterson says Thorne has no choice. “We’re here trying to solve a problem,” she told The Sounder, “or you’ll be writing the story in four to five years that the ferry system has shut down.”

Thorne’s strategy includes the following:

1) Reductions in service to the San Juans, and cancelation of ferry service to Sidney, B.C., for 12 weeks every winter beginning in 2004. (Those reductions will also be in effect this winter, from Feb. 9 to April 5, while the Sidney dock is being repaired.) The winter reductions will include elimination of the 6:35 p.m. sailing from Anacortes to Lopez, Shaw and Orcas, and the return trip to Anacortes at 8:05 p.m. It also calls for tying up the inter-island ferry on Saturdays and Sundays, but utilizing the larger ferries to provide some inter-island service on the weekends.

2) Elimination of all state ferry service to Sidney beginning in 2008 or 2009, although there remains the hope that it will be taken over by a private business. To maintain the Sidney run would require an expenditure of between $9 and $14 million to upgrade a ferry so it could meet international sailing standards. It’s a step the ferry system refuses to take, says Bob Distler, chairman of the San Juan Ferry Advisory Committee.

Summer ferry service to the islands won’t be affected.

Thorne’s management plan does not include a raise in ferry fares besides the one announced earlier this year, which will take effect next May. It will lower operating costs 5 percent, raise fares 5 percent, and raise revenues from other sources 5 percent. Actually, Thorne’s strategy will raise fares to the San Juans by 10 percent under a formula devised by the ferry system known as “route equity.”

The ferry system could have raised fares a lot higher instead of cutting service, but Thorne concluded it would be counter-productive, as it would drive riders away.

Thorne’s proposal isn’t a done deal, but it’s close to being one. The ferry system is willing to listen to alternatives, and will hold public meetings early next year in the San Juans as well as all other communities served by Washington State Ferries. But, Distler says, those offering solutions better be able to address the overall problem if they are to be taken seriously.

State Representative Jeff Morris (D - Anacortes) continues to hold out hope that the legislature will come to the ferry system’s rescue. Morris, who was recently appointed to the House Transportation Committee, says the ferry system is in a “death spiral,” and that it’s being kept “afloat with duct tape.”

Morris intends to push the legislature to approve an increase in the state gas tax, with some of the money going to help the ferry system pay for new boats. State voters rejected Referendum 51 last November, which would have raised the gas tax by nine cents a gallon. But Morris feels that a smaller increase may get the legislature’s support.

The ferry system would be thrilled if Morris could do that, but having been burned by the voters on several occasions, it’s not holding its breath. “We’ve got to stop looking at the problem,” Pat Patterson, public information officer Washington State Ferries said. “We’ve got to do something about it now.”

Other parts of the plan

The ferry system intends to construct two new 130-car ferries over the next five years, and take out of service four 75-car ferries that are now nearly 80 years old. These include the two boats which provide inter-island service, the Nisqually and the Illahee.

Washington State Ferries also intends to sell the Nisqually and the 35-car ferry Hiyu, which handled the inter-island run up until a few years ago.

Other parts of the package include eliminating passenger-only service down Sound and moving the Keystone terminal.

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