Fast ferry to Port Townsend canceled

The trip to Port Townsend got a little longer Sunday, as Washington State Ferries canceled a fast-ferry service between the Olympic Peninsula town and Seattle.

Since mid-December, the M/V Snohomish passenger-only ferry has plied the route. The Snohomish was brought into service temporarily for holiday travelers, who'd been inconvenienced when the state agency pulled four 80-year-old car ferries from service on the Port Townsend-to-Keystone route.

The Seattle ferry was a hit with travelers; at 90 minutes a crossing, the ferry shaved nearly an hour off the driving time. But the cost of operating the run was just too high for the state, said Marta Coursey, spokeswoman for Washington State Ferries.

"While it was a delightful service and appreciated by a small number of people, it's really not something that the state is in a position to continue," Coursey said.

Comparing the sleek ferry's fuel consumption to that of a racecar, Coursey said it cost the state $7,000 to $10,000 a day in losses. Riders' $6.70 fare did little to offset the cost of operating the 149-passenger boat.

Standing in front of Seattle's Pier 52 on Sunday, Carl Youngmann and Ellie Mathews said they'd enjoyed using the fast ferry to travel between their homes in Port Townsend and Seattle.

"It was just lovely," Youngmann said. "If we had that regularly, I'd gladly pay more for it."

Youngmann said the relaxing trip across Puget Sound was a welcome change from the circuitous drive through Bremerton and across the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.

The passenger-only service was launched as a temporary fix after severe hull pitting was found on three of the state's Steel Electric-class car ferries. Gov. Chris Gregoire has said she is moving to replace the ferries, with a new boat arriving by early 2009.

With the run gone, the couple will make the trip by car. Other travelers said they plan to arrange rides to the Keystone ferry terminal on Whidbey Island for a foot ferry to Port Townsend, or to take one of several routes across the Sound to the Kitsap Peninsula.

Passenger-only service on the Port Townsend-Keystone route will continue until car-ferry service resumes there later this month or early in February. But low tides will force cancellations of the evening passenger-only service Monday through Wednesday this week.

The Snohomish will take over that run Thursday after three days of maintenance.

More information is available online at wsdot.wa.gov/ferries.