WA: Largest Ferry System Hits Rough Waters

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND, Wash. (AP) - Starved of money for nearly a decade, the nation's largest ferry system has hit rough water.

The ferries that cruise Puget Sound and surrounding waters have become symbols of the Pacific Northwest, recalling its rich maritime history and figuring prominently in movies and television shows such as "Grey's Anatomy." But beneath their cheery green-and-white paint scheme, the aging ferries are rusty, old and unreliable.

Some boats have been yanked from service for repairs. Routes have been canceled and schedules thrown off. Washington state commuters are frustrated.

"We have a love-fear relationship with the ferries. It's our highway and there's always massive uncertainty," said Pete Gillis, 38, as he caught a ride to Bainbridge Island in Puget Sound, en route to Port Townsend, north of Seattle.

"We had this aging, deteriorating fleet that was ignored and put on the back burner," said Democratic state Rep. Sherry Appleton, whose district west of the Seattle mainland includes three ferry runs.

State Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond says relief is on the way in the form of 13 new boats to be built over the next 20 years.

"We've allowed the system to limp along, ignoring the long-term consequences," she said. "We were delaying the inevitable, and now we see the problem square in the face."

The Washington ferry system hauls 24 million passengers each year, about a quarter of all U.S. ferry passengers. Its 24 vessels range from a tiny boat that links Tacoma to Vashon Island, to a tourist- friendly international run that winds through the scenic San Juan Islands to Vancouver Island in British Columbia.

On upscale Bainbridge Island, thousands of commuters take the ferry to work in downtown Seattle, filling boats that can carry 2,500 passengers on each 30-minute crossing.

For many riders, it's a pleasant time for drinking coffee and reading the morning paper. Some catch up on work using free wireless Internet access. Others just catch a few extra winks.

It's not cheap, even though the state subsidizes the system. A walk-on passenger pays $6.70 a day—$134 a month, minus commuter discounts. Driving a car onto the ferry costs $11.55 each direction, or $460 a month for 20 workdays.

But many commuters cheerfully swallow those prices, making up the difference on cheaper real estate across the water from pricey Seattle.

Riders interviewed on a recent rainy day appreciate the convenience of the ferries, but they have grown impatient with the service disruptions and with fares that have soared 70 percent over the past seven years.

"We love our ferries—and would love them more if our lives didn't depend on them so much," said Phil Herbert, 66, a retired farmer from Port Townsend. "It's taking longer and longer to get places."

Canceled runs and uncertain schedules also play havoc with truckers, especially those hauling perishable products, forcing them to use longer land routes or shift to more distant ferries.

The problems can hurt tourism and business, too. When auto ferry service was canceled to Port Townsend, business plummeted in the Victorian village, which serves as gateway to the vast Olympic Peninsula. Some islanders grouse about being unable to attend concerts or other events in Seattle because of poor nighttime ferry service.

Commuter ferries are often newer boats with comfy lounges and serving wine, sushi, microbrews and designer coffee. But riders on the less- frequent routes endure decades-old boats that are creaky, dingy and prone to breakdowns.

After the 1999 tax vote, lawmakers eventually came up with $350 million to build four new "superferries" that could carry 144 vehicles and 2,500 passengers.

But five years later, those vessels are still on the drawing board because of legal battles with shipbuilders and political squabbles over the size of the boats.

Meanwhile, the fleet gets older. Some boats date to the 1920s, and others are more than 40 years old.

Just before Thanksgiving, state officials pulled the four oldest vessels out of service, fearing they were no longer safe after inspectors found corrosion and cracks in the hulls.

The Legislature approved spending $100 million to build three replacements that can carry 50 to 80 cars. Design work is also under way on three more superferries.

The ferry agency also is being reorganized to repair the system's battered reputation.

The new ferry chief is David Moseley, 60, who spent most of his career as an administrator for Seattle and other cities. With no maritime background, Moseley was purposely chosen to reform the agency.

"The ferries are not just a Washington state icon. They're a lifeline for people," Moseley said.

But Pete Gillis, the commuter riding from Bainbridge to Port Townsend, is among those who remain skeptical.

"People's faith has really taken a big blow in the last couple of years," he said. "I don't have a lot of faith that it will improve."

My sincerest fear is that a natural disaster(s) will force Washington to change because elections didn't work. When you live in the shadow of active volcanoes and on a major fault line with a huge tsunami potential of a basin of water at your doorstep, it's just not wise to tick off God.

The San Andreas Fault is a transform boundary that separates the North American and Pacific Plates. The smaller Juan de Fuca plate lies between these two plates opposite Oregon, Washington, northern California, and part of British Columbia. The Pacific Plate moves northwest relative to the North American Plate.

A fleet of canoes followed U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) geologist Brian Atwater from mudbank to mudbank along the Niawiakum River on Washington State's south coast, where he showed the paddlers evidence for the most recent Pacific Northwest earthquake of magnitude 9 and the associated Pacific Ocean tsunami. Most of the paddlers were visitors from the Indian Ocean region, hoping to gain knowledge that would help make their home countries safer from the threat of tsunamis. The field trip, held July 26, 2007, was part of a new Certificate Program in Tsunami Science and Preparedness offered by the University of Washington (UW) in cooperation with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). This program is the first offering of the International Tsunami Training Institute, established by NOAA and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in response to the tsunami that claimed 300,000 lives around the Indian Ocean in December 2004.

Landslide generated tsunami in Lituya Bay, Alaska; July 9, 1958:

Is this what's in store for the Puget Sound and Straits of Juan de Fuca?

The system's problems date back to 1999, when voters repealed a vehicle-registration tax that provided much of the money to build, maintain and operate ferries. That caused fare increases, cuts in service and delays in maintaining and replacing boats.

"We had this aging, deteriorating fleet that was ignored and put on the back burner," said Democratic state Rep. Sherry Appleton, whose district west of the Seattle mainland includes three ferry runs.

Translation: For decades, we politicians have been siphoning off the vehicle registration taxes, road taxes, and any other transportation taxes, and using them to fund our personal pork projects in our districts to assure that we are re-elected. Then in 1999, Tim Eyman and his initiative process cut off a bunch of our slush fund income. So all the years that we had neglected the roads, highways and ferries are all the fault of those bad public initiatives.

"We've allowed the system to limp along, ignoring the long-term consequences," she said. "We were delaying the inevitable, and now we see the problem square in the face."

See above translation. "It's not our fault, it's that goldurned Tim Eyman's fault for taking all that money away from us.

"Canceled runs and uncertain schedules also play havoc with truckers, especially those hauling perishable products, forcing them to use longer land routes or shift to more distant ferries.

The problems can hurt tourism and business, too. When auto ferry service was canceled to Port Townsend, business plummeted in the Victorian village, which serves as gateway to the vast Olympic Peninsula. Some islanders grouse about being unable to attend concerts or other events in Seattle because of poor nighttime ferry service."

Translation: See, if we had just been given more money for our pork projects, office slush funds and to buy election votes, we could have made the stupid peons...er, public actually think we were doing something constructive for them, even though we weren't. So to make these ungrateful peons...er, citizens pay for them wanting us politicians, who know better how to spend their money than they do, to live within our means, we've fixed them. We've made a bunch of administrative moves that really will make their lives a living hell, screw them over and show them just how much control we have over them. They'll think better of us next time we raise their taxes and spend their money on our socialist... er, public service projects.

After the 1999 tax vote, lawmakers eventually came up with $350 million to build four new "superferries" that could carry 144 vehicles and 2,500 passengers.

But five years later, those vessels are still on the drawing board because of legal battles with shipbuilders and political squabbles over the size of the boats.

Translation: After they took our slush fund money... er, vehicle excise taxes away from us, we pretended to divert money from other unnecessary money pits...er, funding sources and made all those stupid peons...er, commuters think that we were actually going to do something constructive for them. Hah! We showed them! We've tied up the new ferries in bureaucratic red tape and bungling, so we haven't had to actually spend all that money that we supposedly "found" elsewhere. Those ungrateful tramps...er, commuters will feel our wrath!

Just before Thanksgiving, state officials pulled the four oldest vessels out of service, fearing they were no longer safe after inspectors found corrosion and cracks in the hulls.

Translation: In order to make those ungrateful idiots feel pain and make sure they'll support our tax increases, we had a couple of "inspectors" take a really good look at every regulation and ferryboat with magnifying glasses and fine tooth combs, and had them trump up some "safety" pretext to pull operationally functional boats out of service, maximizing the pain to those ungrateful wretches who think that it's their money, when it's actually OURS which they are just holding for us until we take it from them. They want us to live under a budget, we'll show them!

The ferry agency also is being reorganized to repair the system's battered reputation.

The new ferry chief is David Moseley, 60, who spent most of his career as an administrator for Seattle and other cities. With no maritime background, Moseley was purposely chosen to reform the agency.

Translation: They think the ferry system is run badly now, we just put a guy who wouldn't know a ferryboat from a big wheel in charge of the system. Now watch how much pain we can inflict on those ungrateful voters/commuters and just how much more screwed up we can make it for them. They'd better learn that if they vote for Dino Rossi, we'll find enough votes in the broom closet behind the copy machine at King County Elections bureau to again put OUR socialist candidate in place and keep screwing those smart alecs who think we are their servants. We'll show them.

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