The Bainbridge Island-Seattle ferry route isn’t affected in the first round of Washington State Ferries’ proposed service cuts of $14 million from its 2011 budget, but WSF isn’t making any promises for the future.
“We have a heck of a huge problem and this may not be the end of it,” WSF chief David Moseley said this week during a local community meeting.
“Just because there isn’t any Bainbridge Island service reductions right now doesn’t mean there won’t be an impact. We might not be done with reductions,” he said. “Bainbridge will be impacted as hours are reduced to the north and south, and people need to use this route more often.”
WSF is in the midst of a major facelift after Gov. Chris Gregoire asked the Passenger Vessel Association (PVA) to conduct a review of the ferries division. Though the nationwide panel commended the ferries division for the quality of its system, members also offered suggestions for improvement.
WSF officials said two weeks ago that they would work to implement a majority of the 36 recommendations made by the industry expert panel. Simultaneously, WSF could face the need to reduce more expenditures to close its budget gap, which is looking increasingly difficult as the ominous 2011 legislative session draws near.
In an effort to be more efficient, WSF has already cut 35 full-time staff (FTE), in addition to other cuts totaling $27 million over the last three years in administration and capital savings. Vessel and terminal maintenance, along with management, make up 20 percent of the WSF operating budget. WSF has to focus on the lower 80 percent of the budget to close the gap, Moseley said, including fuel, labor and other costs.
Moseley said he is less optimistic today than he was a month ago because of lower than expected gas-tax revenue and because of the midterm election results.
“In an election people have the right to say what they want,” he said. “They don’t want a tax on soda pop and candy and they want a two-thirds majority vote on new taxes. Those things are going to make our situation a lot more difficult,” said Moseley.
WSF was planning on a Jan. 1 fare increase system-wide that could be jeopardized by the passage last month of Initiative 1053, which requires a two-thirds majority vote in the State Legislature to raise taxes. Though the transportation committee took action on the fare increase before the initiative was passed, 1053 went into effect on Dec. 2, according to Moseley, which may effect the rate increase.
WSF officials are awaiting a legal opinion from the State Attorney General’s Office to see if the rate increase will be impacted. WSF hopes to receive a decision before Jan. 1 to determine if it can charge the rate hike. Until then, WSF said it will wait as long as possible before printing the Jan. 1 passenger tickets.
State Rep. Sherry Appleton said she is concerned about the bleak outlook for the ferry systems, but she doesn’t think service reductions are the way to save money.
“If the rate hike doesn’t go into effect we are going to have to recoup those costs and we would have to do a lot of different things to make it happen,” she said. “Additional [service] reductions would certainly be on the table. The last place I want to cut is ferry routes because that just doesn’t make sense to me.”
“You cut routes you cut riders, and we’ve already lost two million riders in the last 10 years,” she added. “I’d like to see them come back, but we won’t if the fares are too high and we cut runs at the same time.”
Corrected for inflation, current WSF fares are slightly lower for car and driver and even lower for passenger‐only than what was charged in the early 1950s. The 2.5 percent increase proposed for Jan. 1, 2011, would primarily keep fare prices in line with inflation, according to Appleton. Because of a bill sponsored by State Rep. Christine Rolfes and Appleton, there was a two-year hiatus on rate increases.
In 1999 at the peak of ferry ridership, there were 26.7 million people coming through the system, but ridership dropped in 2008 to 22.5 million riders. Moseley said ridership levels were slightly higher in 2009 and 2010, but that is primarily due to an increase in recreational riders. There has been a decrease in commuters using the system.
Many of the bicycle commuters were angered by one of the PVA study recommendations, which recommended the ferry system alter its bicycle loading and unloading procedures. The PVA recommended that vehicles unload ahead of the bikes instead of current standards where bicycles get off first. The PVA thought it would allow better separation of vehicles and bicycles so bikes won’t share the road with disembarking vehicles and add a margin of safety.
Many islanders in the bike community expressed their concern. Moseley met with bike representatives including members of the island nonprofit Squeaky Wheels to ensure the needs of bikers would be heard.
Kirk Robinson is one of the bicycle commuters who was concerned about a possible change to current practices.
“I personally feel safer going off the front of the boat and it makes a huge difference in what you have to breathe by getting off first,” said Robinson. “There is a lot of history over the last 15 years in trying to improve the loading and unloading for bicycles, and what we have now works well on Bainbridge.”
Moseley said WSF will take a closer look at unloading and loading procedures and encourage communication with the bicycle community. He said the goal is to make improvements that work for everyone.
Moseley said he doesn’t believe there have been any bike/vehicle related accidents and did mention that none of the experts on the panel have experience with such a heavy load of bicycle commuters.
