New WA foot ferries envisioned for San Juans, Everett, Bellingham

New passenger-only ferry service is most likely to sail among the San Juan Islands, between Whidbey Island and Everett or from Bellingham to Friday Harbor, according to a study done for Washington State Ferries.

But commuters in these northern communities shouldn’t start dreaming about a return of the historic Mosquito Fleet just yet. Before anything happens, state lawmakers must fund the endeavor — which would easily run into tens of millions of dollars — and decide whether WSF should operate the sailings or collaborate with transit agencies or private entities on the project.

But both Democratic and Republican leaders on the Legislature’s transportation committees say now is not the time for passenger-only ferries.

“We don’t have the money,” said Rep. Jake Fey, D-Tacoma, who chairs the House Transportation Committee. “A lot more analysis and discussion” is needed before foot ferries would be reintegrated into the ferry system, something he suggested could happen as a replacement for some of the state’s car ferries.

Sen. Curtis King, R-Yakima, agreed, saying the state’s project to fully electrify the ferry fleet by 2040 has essentially tapped out the ferry funding. Sen. Marco Liias, D-Edmonds, suggested that county transit agencies should take the lead.

The state-commissioned study, funded in last year’s Legislative session, comes as WSF is trying to rebuild its aging fleet and labor pool after years of delayed and canceled sailings severely drained its ridership and wounded its reputation.

This summer, Gov. Bob Ferguson said WSF had returned to “full domestic service,” but that claim relies on a razor-thin cushion of just three boats, increasing the risk of canceled sailings if a vessel unexpectedly breaks down or if one is pulled to assist in an emergency.

Foot ferry service could help the agency fluff that cushion as it waits for delivery of its next standard car-bearing vessel, which isn’t expected until around 2030.

Jenna Forty, a WSF spokesperson, said the agency is “not really able to comment on the likelihood of passenger-only service returning,” and referred questions to lawmakers.

The study, prepared by KPFF Consulting Engineers for the state, suggests it isn’t a lack of popularity or interest keeping walk-on ferries off the water, because Washingtonians, especially those who live on islands, “continue to express interest in implementation of new (passenger-only) services.

The study also raised the “invaluable” benefits of “overwater connections (that) can greatly benefit local connectivity, as they often provide a faster travel time.”

Those benefits were well known to previous generations of Puget Sound commuters, who relied on a ragtag armada of privately-run steamships known as the Mosquito Fleet to get almost anywhere in the region.

In the days before roads, bridges and even cars, the “often jerry-rigged, usually reliable, occasionally less seaworthy than they should be, and always more functional than fashionable” foot ferries welded together the many communities along Puget Sound’s 1,300-mile shoreline, according to HistoryLink.

With more and more people welding themselves to the automobile, however, the Mosquito Fleet became unprofitable, and the state took over ferry service, transforming it into the marine highway system we know today.

A bill put forward this year by state Rep. Greg Nance, D-Bainbridge Island, would’ve returned some of that historic glory by helping fund and loosening the rules around foot ferry service, but it failed to win enough support to become law. After passing out of the House with a 87-8 vote, the bill died in Senate Transportation Committee, which is led by Liias.

Nance envisioned ferries on Lake Union and Lake Washington, the Columbia River and even Grays Harbor, but this year’s study is much smaller in scope. It examined seven routes before narrowing its focus to Whidbey Island-Everett and Bellingham-Friday Harbor sailings, in addition to two San Juan interisland sailings.

According to the study, the 5.5-mile trip between Whidbey Island and Everett would take 20 minutes. With six round trips only on weekdays, it was estimated that about 85 people would use it a day, or 22,100 a year. The state would need to spend between $34.1 million and $39.3 million in initial capital costs to get the service going, and the sailing’s annual operating cost would run $2.7 million.

The 26.7-mile trip from Bellingham to Friday Harbor would take 50 minutes. The seasonal summer service would sail seven days a week, with about 180 passengers a day, or 26,500 a year. This route’s capital costs are estimated between $72.4 million and $82.8 million, which are driven by the need for a large, 250-passenger ferry that could use the WSF terminal at Friday Harbor. Annual operating costs would tally $3.5 million.

The two interisland routes have similar trip times and distances, but they’re differentiated by what terminals the boats would use: WSF facilities that would require special bow-loading vessels with room for 250 passengers, or existing piers that could support smaller, 150-passenger foot ferries.

Using WSF terminals and larger boats would cost $69.8 million and have an annual operating costs of $3.3 million. With smaller boats and the use of a mix of private and public docks, the service would have a capital cost of $16.1 million to $21.1 million, with annual operating costs of $2.1 million.

Both of the interisland sailings would see about 223 daily passengers, or 40,800 a year.

The capital costs for all the routes in the study would largely go to improving docking sites and buying vessels. It’s estimated that a new 150-passenger ferry would cost about $13 million, and the 250-passenger boats about $32 million. By contrast, the state said the first of its 1,500-passenger, 164-vehicle hybrid-electric ferries will cost approximately $405 million.

The study is a sequel of sorts to one produced in 2021 by the Puget Sound Research Council and commissioned by the Legislature, which examined 45 potential passenger-only routes but said only seven of them should be further studied.

At the top of the 2021 list was a ferry connection between Seattle and Tacoma. The new study, however, didn’t include it because the route has an existing transit connection with the Sound Transit Sounder train, and a planned connection with Link light rail, which is officially scheduled for a 2035 opening.

Other Seattle routes considered in that study — Kenmore-University of Washington, Kirkland-UW, Renton-UW and Renton-South Lake Union — were screened out in the new report because they didn’t land near an existing WSF terminal. The fact that they were not recommended for further study is “not reflective of the viability of these routes but rather that these routes were not the focus of this particular study,” the study said.

The viability of many of these routes was explored in recent years by the King County Marine Division.

King County only got into providing water taxi service after Initiative 695 led to a $93 million reduction in state ferry funding between 1999 and 2001, which in turn led to WSF cutting service and raising fares. By 2006, the state had just one walk-on ferry, between Seattle and Vashon Island, and the Legislature directed the ferry system to shift that service to King County.

Though there is no legislation explicitly barring the state from running foot ferries, WSF has not had a direct role in passenger-only ferries since then, even as it has helped fund county service.

In September 2024, San Juan County got $1.5 million in state funding to help fund emergency service, following perhaps the worst stretch of delays and cancellations WSF has had. Between August 2023 and July 2024, the privately-operated Community Water Taxi foot ferry provided 557 trips during interisland WSF cancellations. Today, six private foot ferries offer charter services in San Juan County, and can hold between four and 80 people.

Kitsap Transit Fast Ferries, which started in 2017 and links Bremerton, Kingston and Southworth to downtown Seattle, has received about $9.4 million from the state. Last week, the agency got another $2.9 million from the state to continue offering seven extra weekday sailings between Bremerton and Seattle through August 2026 to help support the crush of World Cup fans expected for six matches at Lumen Field that summer.

King County, too, will receive state funds for expanded service during the World Cup. Beyond that, it has received about $6.4 million from the state for its water taxi service connecting downtown Seattle with West Seattle and Vashon Island.

The county continues to explore other foot ferry routes. Earlier this year, it sailed a demonstration trip between Seattle and Des Moines, but has no plans to expand service.