Southworth Riders Wondering About Changes to Vashon Passenger Ferry - Kitsap Sun

SOUTH KITSAP —

The King County Ferry District will take over the Vashon Island-Seattle passenger-only route from the state this fall, bringing a new boat, new schedule and new prices. Dozens of riders who hop from Southworth to Vashon to connect with the downtown boat are faced with adjustments.

New fares and schedules were to be approved Monday by the ferry district’s board of supervisors, but it asked for more time. It did approve a boat lease for the Melissa Ann, which once operated between Bremerton and Seattle.

The proposed fare would be a slight increase — from $8.70 now with Washington State Ferries to $9 — but there’s a catch. The state waives the Southworth-Vashon leg now for those connecting to the passenger-only boat, but will start charging them $4.30 like everybody else. So it will cost them a total of $4.60 more to get to Seattle and back.

King County, which takes over on Sept. 28, is adding sailings, but like today, only four will work for South Kitsap folks — 7:10 and 8:10 (WSF has asked to change this to 8:15) from Vashon in the morning, and 4:30 and 5:30 from Seattle in the evening. And the 4:30 p.m. is a stretch because there’s a 33-minute wait at Vashon, making it a 65-minute trip. Some have complained to the ferry district.

Carol [URL]Kowalski of Manchester realizes King County’s ferry system isn’t going to coddle Kitsap riders, but she believes transit systems should mesh.

“The most disturbing point is what is the region’s responsibility to interconnected mass transit?” she said.

King County and Washington State Ferries have been meeting monthly about the changeover.

“We are concerned about all of our passengers, and we consider Southworth and Vashon to be our customers, so we will continue to work very closely with the ferry district to make sure our passengers are given due consideration,” WSF spokeswoman Marta Coursey said.

Her counterpart at the ferry district said many things have to click, including bus and car-ferry schedules, preventing ferry overloads, and the times people start and leave work.

“Taking all those things into consideration and asking riders what they want, these proposed times seem to hit the market as best as possible,” Kris Faucett said. “We looked at when the Southworth boat arrives and tried to schedule it so they would link up fairly well.”

The Melissa Ann, leased from Four Seasons Marine, carries 149 passengers at about 28 knots. Kitsap Ferry Co., with help from Kitsap Transit, ran it between Bremerton and Seattle until March 2007, when it couldn’t afford to continue.

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