PORT TOWNSEND — Proposed passenger ferry service between Seattle and Port Townsend could begin earlier than expected, Port of Port Townsend commissioners were told this week.
The service was expected to start in August 2013, but it could begin this year if the Port of Port Townsend’s proposal to lease an existing boat is approved.
“If we can get this settled, we can have a boat running by Christmas,” said Deputy Port Director Jim Pivarnik at a port commissioner meeting Wednesday.
“The terms of the lease would be for three years, and that time would provide us with a good test as to whether the service is viable.”
The idea of a passenger ferry between Port Townsend and Seattle has been discussed since a temporary passenger ferry operated for several months in 2007, following the removal of the Steel Electric ferries from service, but it has gained traction in the past year.
The port plans to own and administer the service and contract its operation to a contractor.
Puget Sound Express, owned and operated by Pete and Sherri Hanke, was selected in November as the operator and will run the service whether the boat in question is built, bought or leased by the port.
The preferred staff-recommended option is to lease a boat, Port Director Larry Crockett said Wednesday.
Pivarnik said: “There are some people who have asked what we are doing, that we have been talking about it for more than a year.
“But we have been working with the Federal Transit Administration to convince them that our business model would work.”
On Thursday, Pivarnik said he thought the Federal Transit Administration, or FTA, which administers the grant for the boat, was on board with the proposal.
“In order for this to work, it needs to have the support of the community,” Pivarnik said.
“If it succeeds, then it would give us the confidence to build or buy a boat.”
Pivarnik said the port had options on boats that could be leased immediately.
The current proposal is for the boat to run two round-trips a day at a cost to customers of about $30 for passage both ways.
Pivarnik said the main purpose of the service will be to bring tourists downtown and that it is not meant as a commuter service, though some riders will use it to go into Seattle on business.
Pivarnik said the plan has caused some confusion in the FTA.
“We needed to make it clear to them that this is not an excursion vessel and will travel directly from one point to another nonstop,” he said.
Pivarnik said staff members told the FTA that its business model is different from the Kingston-Seattle passenger ferry.
“We won’t be depending on commuters, but it will be a better option for locals to reach Seattle than driving,” Pivarnik said.
Travel on the passenger ferry would take about an hour each way.
Pivarnik said there has been some local resistance to the proposal “because some people don’t like tourists coming in during the summer, crowding the downtown and causing parking problems.”
A passenger ferry provides the best alternative because it brings tourists in without adding to the traffic problem, he said.
“We’ll bring people in so they can shop downtown without their cars so they won’t increase traffic congestion,” he said.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.