Port Townsend: Passenger ferry to Victoria to start next year, Chamber of Commerce told

Published 12:01 am Tuesday, April 22, 2003

PORT TOWNSEND — High-speed passenger ferry service between Port Townsend and Victoria will be a reality in about a year.

Pete Hanke, owner of Puget Sound Express, said Monday that his company will offer the service beginning next spring.

For $52.50, passengers will be able to get round-trip service between Point Hudson and the British Columbia provincial capital, Hanke told Port Townsend Chamber of Commerce members at a noon luncheon Monday.

The catamaran will carry up to 100 passengers at about 30 mph, Hanke said.

Initially, the company will make one round trip a day, then add two round-trip runs later on. Hanke said he thinks his company could carry 2,000 to 3,000 customers a year on the route.

His Port Townsend-Friday Harbor service carries 5,000 passengers annually, he said.

The planned $52.50 round-trip fare will fall between the fares of the Victoria passenger ferry from Seattle and that of the summer-only passenger service from Port Angeles

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