KINGSTON — Aqua Express plans to suspend its Kingston-Seattle service at the end of this month.
The passenger-only ferry began the run in January but never achieved the number of riders forecast by public and private surveys of commuters’ willingness to use it.
“It appears it’s very difficult to get people to change their travel habits,” Aqua Express spokesman Jim Boldt said Wednesday.
“Our averages haven’t increased in the last few months.”
Between 400 and 500 people used the ferry’s two morning and two afternoon round trips, he said.
State waffling cited
In addition, John Blackman, managing partner, blamed the state’s alleged waffling on public and private-sector ferry service.
The Legislature encouraged such cooperation in 2003, and Aqua Express applied for permits to run passenger-only ferries from Kingston, Bremerton and Southworth to Seattle.
The company anticipated taking two years to start turning a profit, Boldt said.
In 2004, however, lawmakers told the state ferry system to study operating the routes itself, according to Blackman.
In 2005, the Legislature failed to fund such service but called for another study instead.
“Now we hear that the state wants to run a large car ferry from Kingston to Seattle,” Boldt said.
“It makes it a little tough for the private sector when the state is going to run a route, is not going to run a route, is going to run a route again.”