SO YOU WANT TO RUN YOUR OWN FERRY?
Ever since the 2003 Coastal Ferry Act transformed BC Ferries into a provincially-owned corporation, clearing the way for subcontractors to take over some of the shorter crossings, bids by private operators eager to take on those money-losing routes have not been rolling in.
Perhaps they've been reading Puget Sound papers. And a few history books.
In 1910, foot passenger ferries operating between Seattle, Olympia, Tacoma, Port Townsend, Everett, Bellingham, Bremerton, Vashon and Bainbridge islands, Victoria and Vancouver were carrying 2 million passengers a year as the Black Ball Line.
With the mass introduction of cars, Black Ball replaced the “Mosquito Fleet” passenger-only ferries with the new auto carrying boats - just in time for heavy traffic generated by the Second World War.
After Armistice and some 60 million deaths, the demand for ferry service declined. In response, the Black Ball Line cut back service and began raising fares - until the resulting public outcry inspired the Transportation Commission to order a roll back.
Black Ball terminated its state ferry service charter. Washington State then bought Black Ball. Today, Washington State Ferries (WSF) operates that nation's largest auto ferry service with 28 vessels annually transporting more than 24 million passengers to 20 different ports.
Passenger-only ferries for Puget Sound residents were revisited in 1984. When WSF finished updating its 1990-2000 Long Range Plan, worsening traffic congestion and steadily increasing ridership prompted a recommendation for foot passenger ferry service from downtown Seattle to Bremerton.
By
William Thomas
No one was considering future fuel costs when the $2.5 million Tyee catamaran started carrying 319 passengers at 23 knots between Seattle and Bremerton. Skagit and Kalama soon followed. Carrying 250 passengers at a cruising speed of 25 knots, these two additional high-speed ferries expanded foot passenger service to Bremerton, and initiated service to Vashon Island.
But residents watching their shorelines wash away rallied to stop the cats' big wakes. They quickly made enough legal waves to prompt the state to order a slow down to under 12 knots through Rich Passage. This added 15 minutes to the passage, saving only 5 minutes over the “steady as she goes” auto ferries.
Still pursuing an “extra” few minutes' speed, Chinook and Snohomish were designed to reduce wake wash. But more legal action brought by shoreside residents over their eroding properties resulted in the permanent slow down of service on the Seattle-Bremerton route.
Faced with dwindling ridership and taxpayers cutting back ferry funding, in 2002 the Washington State Transportation Commission announced its intention to eliminate passenger-only ferry service the following year. Passenger-only service to Vashon Island was retained. And the residents of Kitsap County were asked to support a passenger-only ferry plan providing service initially from three communities to downtown Seattle. [mtak.org]
THE LYNX JINX
While Washington State was busy abandoning its high-speed passenger ferries in 2003, HarbourLynx proceeded full-speed ahead in inaugurating its own “fast cat” 300 passenger foot-ferry service between Nanaimo and downtown Vancouver.
[Hansard Oct9/03]
Vancouver-Victoria and Vancouver-Squamish routes were also planned. HarbourLynx operations manager Bill McKay told the press the company was going after the 15 to 20 percent of BC Ferries customers who prefer to travel as foot-passengers.
Except for getting their fillings jarred out in rough crossings that often caused the hard-riding cats to slow from 30-knots to car ferry speeds, many passengers loved the convenience provided by the new link, which made the “approximately” 80-minute crossing for $45.00 adult return, $25 one-way.
But apparently, no one in head office figured out that the same fuel prices causing riders to leave their cars at home would also cripple the balance sheets of the fuel-guzzling catamarans. When the Harbour Lynx ferry service was suspended in February 2006, business edge bc reported, “The fast ferries were mothballed after complaints about cost overruns, excess fuel consumption, cramped seating, and damage to waterfront properties and shorelines caused by the vessels' large wakes.”
Even as the fast passenger-only ferries were being scuttled, the rising cost of bringing vehicles onboard BC car ferries was seeing ridership drop. As a result, though the provincial population has increased just over 4% since the announced fleet upgrade in 2003, BC Ferries figures show ridership declining or staying flat during that time. [businessedge.ca; bcpassport.com]
Is it time to revisit slower, saner foot-passenger ferries linked to greenhouse-and-oil appropriate vehicular shuttles onshore?
Port Townsend had no choice after dock workers discovered nearly half the steel hull of their Steel Electric ferry so rotten with rust, the boat, and three others like it were yanked from service instantly.
"There's a point where we have to give up the ghost. I didn't feel good about the safety of the boats," explained Department of Transportation secretary, Paula Hammond.
Launched in 1927 to shuttle people around San Francisco Bay, the four Steel Electric Ferries were originally sold to the Puget Sound Navigation company when the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges were completed. The name “Steel Electric” was derived from the boats' construction, and a propulsion system that utilized diesel engines to directly power electric motors - just like our Gulf Island ferries today.
"The electric propulsion system was Cadillac," recalls David Black, a longtime ferry worker and historian from Poulsbo, Kitsap County who worked 34 years on Washington State Ferries. "And they were in the loving care of the electricians in Eagle Harbor. The boats were overbuilt and just ran and ran and ran."
[Seattle Times Dec 17/07]
He's not kidding. Intended to run for 60 years, the four worn-out Washington State ferries were finally scrapped after 80 years of service. As other aging boats were juggled to fill the gaps, Washington State ferry fares jumped 34% in a single day.
But the Port Townsend-Keystone route, which ferries 778,000 passengers and 370,000 vehicles every year, was still without a boat. The Todd and Martinac shipyard said they could build a replacement car ferry for about $20 million. But it would take at least a year.
[electricferries.com; Seattle Times Dec 11/07; Everett Herald Mar 7/08; orphanroad.com; captrichardrodriguez.blogspot.com]
Imagine that, Hornby! (And we can't drive the long way around, like the residents of PT.)
Pressed into service on the 90-minute run to Keystone near Seattle, the relatively light, aluminum foot ferry Snohomish found it rough going. As the Whidbey News Times succinctly reported, “When high winds blow through Admiralty Inlet, one thing that won't be on the water is Snohomish.”
[whidbeynewstimes.com Dec 5/07; electricferries.com]
What about PT's other runs? The Whidbey Examiner had this to say about the little launches operating a Dunkirk-like commuter rescue service: “While Port Townsend was enjoying its very own private ferry link with Seattle at a cost of about $14,000 per day, people who needed to cross Admiralty Inlet to get to or from Whidbey Island have been stuck with small private tour boats. The captain and crew of the Puget Sound Express whale-watching boats are doing their best to provide good service on the Keystone-Port Townsend crossing.”
Puget Sound all-island petition drive won ferry fares roll-back
Problem was, the Examiner observed, “With dozens of ferry users make the Keystone-Port Townsend crossing on a daily basis year 'round,” the small boats have been “plagued by cancellations due to windy weather… Runs have repeatedly been canceled - without any advance notice.”
[Whidbey Examiner Dec 28/07]
After operating for seven months, the privately operated Kingston-to-Seattle foot ferry service shut down in September 2005 when Aqua Express found itself swamped by rising fuel costs after attracting only half the riders it needed to meet expenses.
State commission analyst Dan Kermode told reporters that with a doubling in passengers and a smaller, more fuel-efficient boat, "I believe there's the possibility " that private operators could become viable.
How?
"That's the hard part," he said.
[Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sept 29/05]
Indeed. When it comes to hauling 8,000 vehicles and passengers on a summer weekend, ?old fashioned? diesel-electric ferries fully subsidized as part of the highways system they once belonged to can still serve for another decade or two. With their entire day's fuel costs on short routes like the Hornby-Denman run paid for in a single morning's run, there remains a lot of operating leeway to accommodate future fuel increases - even while rolling back fares to 2004 prices, just before rate increases went from the incremental to the incredible. And became unaffordable.
The big Super Ferries crossing the Gulf can save fuel by simply slowing down.
But - and there is always a “but...
If the convergence of Climate Shift, rapidly rising food and fuel prices, and unregulated “shadow” financial markets scuttle the entire global economy - which appears increasingly likely - islanders thrown back on their own resources might take the above lessons into consideration when considering either the modification or replacement of our current water transport:
1. Foot passenger ferries must be met by affordable and reliable shore shuttles that connect either directly to essential destinations, or with other transit links.
2. Everyone everywhere is going to have to sloooow down. Insisting on a few minutes' extra speed is silly, stressful - and will carry us over too many cliffs.
3. Scaling back fits neatly with chilling out. Smaller, seaworthy, licensed passenger boats making less frequent, more frequent, or “charter” runs may someday become the norm. (Tourist-dependent island businesses take note!)
4. If you want to run a successful water transport business, forget burning oil, except in minimal “hybrid” electrical-generation applications. Think “all-electric” or “sail-electric” propulsion. (And don't forget licensing requirements for the vessel and her captain.)
YES, BUT WHAT DO WE NOW?
First, if you ride a BC ferry for any reason, anywhere - get onboard the Rock The Boat coalition. Inform yourself and get involved. Understand that even if you think you can afford the doubling and re-doubling of coastal ferry fares, you cannot afford to continue allowing a government elected and paid to serve the public to answer to corporate interests - while ignoring our needs, and the Big Changes already lapping at our knees.
Here is a chance to help turn the tide of cynical for-profit “privatization” of essential public services - and hold elected officials accountable for their gross mismanagement and public contempt.
Don't tell me that you're too busy, too afraid of some vague bogeyman, or that it's hopeless, or you just don't care. Look in your children's' eyes and say it to them.
Better yet, bring them along to the next Rock The Boat rally at your nearest ferry landing on July 4!
Next, we might wish to emulate the success of Washington State ferry riders, whose coalition of community councils put enough authority behind their petition drive to prompt a rollback in ferry fares - despite a required emergency program to replace four ferries. Other jurisdictions are also rolling back ferry fares. When approaching the provincial government, research and point to these precedents.
Then we might take another look south of the border at citizens Initiative I-985, which deals with rising fuel costs by opening carpool lanes and requiring traffic lights to be synchronized. It does not impose new funds or tolls, but instead gets needed money from existing funds.
[captrichardrodriguez.blogspot.com]
Who said transformation isn't fun?
What are we waiting for?
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