Spanel comments on legislative action regarding ferries

Ferry fares under Legislature’s consideration, snow removal and bridge tolls in budget mix

By MARGIE DOYLE

Editor

State Senator Harriet Spanel said on Feb. 29 that there would not be a hearing for SHB 2718, which proponents had said would “restore the language that provides for Frequent Ferry User Discounts (auto and passenger multiple ride

tickets).”

Spanel described the failed bill as “a feel-good bill that doesn’t do anything.”

She said that as the Senate Transportation Committee, headed by

Senator Mary Margaret Haugen, looks at ferry fares, there is “concern about putting in different criteria” while studies on ferry ridership and Washington State Ferries (WSF) finances are being undertaken.

Spanel noted that with last year’s moratorium of fare increases, “the tremendous increase in fuel costs were put in the budget and not passed on to users.”

“We want to be wide open as we look at different routes and different ridership… I believe there will always be some type of discount, but it didn’t seem necessary to make the changes [included in SHB 2718].”

The studies are scheduled to be completed in December, and Spanel said, “I don’t know that there will be anything that we haven’t already come up with.”

On Feb. 29, the State House passed legislation that would establish tolls on State Route 520’s Evergreen Point Bridge as soon as construction starts on the new bridge. “The Senate Transportation Committee will be discussing that this coming week; it will take a bit of time,” said Spanel. She also noted that the toll on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge is scheduled to increase, and said that there was talk of a toll on state mountain passes, where this winter’s record snowfalls have added $3,000,000 to the $80,000,000 budget.

Spanel commented that State Transportation Director Paula Hammond has “redesigned” the Washington State Ferries (WSF) agency “to better connect the ferry system with the rest of the [Transportation] Department.” (See related stories, A4)

WSF “did a lot of things different from the rest of the department that weren’t as cost effective as the rest of the department,” Spanel said, citing terminal designs among them.