HomeMy WebLinkAbout022723 EDM _--_ PT Ferry________________________________
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Ben,
I just downloaded and viewed the meeting <https://test.co.jefferson.wa.us/WebLinkExternal/0/edoc/4697939/video1012382557.mp4> with WSDOT held last Thursday. Sorry, I couldn’t attend
due to an unavoidable conflict.
I saw that you had asked about the possibility of running a ferry between Edmonds and PT.
As you noted, the last time that happened was in mid-2009, when there was very limited car ferry service between CV and PT (only the 50-car ferry [“Bob”] leased from Pierce County) *and*
the Hood Canal Bridge was closed for 6 weeks.
See: https://www.seattletimes.com/life/outdoors/hood-canal-bridge-closure-to-complicate-travel-to-port-townsend-and-olympic-peninsula/ <https://www.seattletimes.com/life/outdoors/hood-canal-bridge-cl
osure-to-complicate-travel-to-port-townsend-and-olympic-peninsula/>
That EDM <--> PT ferry was a once-per-night round trip for commercial carriers.
Washington State Ferries will run a full-size ferry between Edmonds and Port Townsend during the closure, with one round-trip sailing per evening, Sunday through Thursday.
The service is primarily designed to ease the burden on freight haulers, and commercial vehicles will have priority. The ferry will leave Edmonds at 8:40 p.m. and depart Port Townsend
at 10:40 p.m.
The other mitigation during that closure was a WSF-provided PO service:
A free passenger-only water shuttle will run every half-hour, 4 a.m.-11 p.m. daily, between docks at Lofall in Kitsap County and South Point in Jefferson County. See www.kitsaptransit.com
<http://www.kitsaptransit.com> and www.jeffersontransit.com <http://www.jeffersontransit.com> for information on connecting bus service to Port Townsend or other ferry docks.
I agree it would be great to have passenger car service to/from Edmonds, but I seriously doubt that WSF will be able to accommodate, even if willing.
It’s a matter of boats, crew and money.
Boats:
* WSF needs 19 boats in service to run a full summer schedule.
* The fleet currently has 21 boats, but 2 are damaged (Cathlamet, Tacoma) with unknown ETA for restoration to service.
* At least 2 more boats would be in drydock at any given time, leaving somewhere between 17 and 19 boats available – unless another of the now-ancient ones fails in the meantime.
* The 64-car boats we would have “available” (Kennewick, Salish) are less than 1/3 the size of the Jumbo class used on EDM-KIN (Jumbo = 188 cars, Jumbo Mk II = 202 cars).
* The 64-car boats are slow (about 13.5 knots), so the one-way sailing time to/from is at least 120 minutes. So, including 30 minutes dwell time per end, that’s one round trip every
5 hours = maximum of 3 roundtrips per 16-hour day = 384 cars per day (counting both ways).
Crew: Uncertain, but it seems unlikely that WSF will have enough crew for all the available boats. Masters, Mates, Engineers are all in very short supply, not just deck crew. WSF’s Service
Restoration Plan puts PT at the end of the list, and the likelihood of 2-boat service (to-from any port) here seems remote for the rest of 2023.
Budget:
* WSDOT said during the meeting that they currently have “no mitigation money”.
* As far as I know, WSF has no discretionary budget for such service. It probably could not be classified as an “emergency” expenditure because the timing was set some time ago. So,
it’s not at all clear who would pay for the service. There might still be time to add a funding proviso to one of the transportation bills currently under consideration, but time is
of the essence if that’s to be attempted.
Please let me know if you would like to talk about this some more, any time.
Tom Thiersch
Chair, Jefferson County Ferry Advisory Committee (FAC), Port Townsend terminal
tprosys@gmail.com <mailto:tprosys@gmail.com>
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