Washington State Ferries

This page is about the ferry system operated by the state of Washington. Other entities operate other Ferries in Washington State

Washington State Ferries, owned and operated by the Washington State Department of Transportation, serves communities on Puget Sound and in the San Juan Islands. It is the largest fleet of passenger and automobile ferries in the United States and the third largest in the world.

A ferry arrives in Downtown Seattle.

History

Passengers and vehicles board The Hyak in Bremerton, WA.

The ferry system has its origins in the "Mosquito Fleet", a collection of small steamer lines serving the Puget Sound area during the later part of the nineteenth century and early part of the 20th century. By the beginning of the 1930s, two lines remained: the Puget Sound Navigation Company (known as the Black Ball Line) and the Kitsap County Transportation Company. A strike in 1935 forced the KCTC to close, leaving only the Black Ball Line.

Toward the end of the 1940s the Black Ball Line wanted to increase its fares, to compensate for increased wage demands from the ferry workers' unions, but the state refused to allow this, and so the Black Ball Line shut down. In 1951, the state bought substantially all of Black Ball's ferry assets for $5 million. The state intended to run ferry service only until cross-sound bridges could be built, but these were never approved, and the Washington Department of Transportation runs the system to this day.

Fleet

The Hyak in Rich Passage heading to Bremerton, WA.

File:Walla Walla WSF ferry.jpg

The Walla Walla arriving in Edmonds, WA.

As of 2007, there are 28 ferries on Puget Sound operated by the state. The largest vessels in this fleet carry up to 2500 passengers and 202 vehicles. They are painted in a distinctive white and green trim paint scheme, and feature double-ended open vehicle decks and bridges at each end so that they do not need to turn around.

Ferry classes and names are:

• Jumbo Mark II Class:
  • Puyallup
  • Tacoma
  • Wenatchee
• Jumbo Class:
  • Spokane
  • Walla Walla
• Super Class:
  • Elwah
  • Hyak
  • Kaleetan
  • Yakima
• 144 Auto Ferry (design phase in 2007)
  • Multiple unnamed vessels
• Issaquah 130 Class:
  • Cathlamet
  • Chelan
  • Issaquah
  • Kitsap
  • Kittitas
• Issaquah 100 Class:
  • Sealth
• Evergreen State Class:
  • Evergreen State
  • Klahowya
  • Tillikum
• Kwa-di Tabil Class (entering service in 2010):
  • Chetzemoka (currently under construction at Everett Shipyard)
  • Second new vessel (under construction at Todd Shipyards)
  • Possible additional unnamed vessels
• Steel Electric Class (Removed From Service November 2007):
  • Illahee
  • Klickitat
  • Nisqually
  • Quinault
• Rhododendron Class:
  • Rhododendron
• Hiyu Class:
  • Hiyu
• Passenger-Only Fast Ferry Class (sold in December 2008):
  • Chinook
  • Snohomish
• Skagit/Kalama Class ferry (Passenger-Only):
  • Kalama
  • Skagit

Routes

Nisqually with Orcas Island in the background.

A map showing the routes operated by Washington State Ferries in comparison with state highways in Washington. Click for more detail.

Most Washington State Ferry routes are legally part of the state highway system, frequently with no road portion on one end or the other.

• Downtown Seattle to Bremerton (SR 304)
• Downtown Seattle to Bainbridge Island (SR 305)
• Southworth to Vashon Island to Fauntleroy (West Seattle) (SR 160)
• Point Defiance to Tahlequah (south end of Vashon Island) (SR 163)
• Clinton to Mukilteo (SR 525)
• Edmonds to Kingston (SR 104)
• Keystone to Port Townsend (State Route 20)
• Anacortes to (any or all of the following [in most common route order]) (SR 20 Spur)
  • Lopez Island
  • Shaw Island
  • Orcas Island
  • Friday Harbor (on San Juan Island)
  • Sidney, British Columbia (The service's only Canadian port-of-call)

From 1993 to the early 2000s a passenger-only service ran from Bremerton to Seattle. It was shut down because of limited profitability and because of continued lawsuits of residents living on the waterway used by the ferry to prevent the high-speed ferries built for the run from running at their full speed. The slower speed made the crossing time similar or equal to the auto ferry operating on the same route, making the passenger-only service redundant.^{[citation needed]}

The current passenger-only ferry route between Seattle and Vashon Island is designated State Route 339, with no road portion at either end. This route is no longer operated by Washington State Ferries, as responsibility was passed to the King County Marine Division in fall of 2009.

Other ferries

Main article: Ferries in Washington State

There are several other publicly operated, private, and passenger-only ferries in Washington state.

Washington State Ferry Tacoma

See also

• Alaska Marine Highway
• Ferries in Washington State
• Inter-Island Ferry Authority
• BC Ferries
• Keller Ferry
• King County Ferry District
• Black Ball Line

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

[[Commons: Category:Washington State Ferries

| Washington State Ferries

]]

• Washington State Ferries official homepage
• Evergreenfleet.com-- A History of Washington State Ferries Past and Present
• Vehicle Reservation Predesign Study
• West Coast Ferries Forum