PORT TOWNSEND — Don DeMott found out the hard way — it’s time-consuming to make phone reservations for the Port Townsend-Keystone car ferry.
“The whole thing took me 15 minutes,” the Port Angeles resident said Wednesday while idling his pickup truck in line for the Water Street ferry dock toll booth.
DeMott, who tried several times to get through Tuesday to a reservation taker, said his boss was nice enough to let him spend the time at work making a reservation to get on the ferry to Oak Harbor.
Colleen Burns, of Vancouver, British Columbia, said she was on the line “for close to a half-hour” after phoning 5-1-1.
As she waited in the traffic line behind DeMott, Burns said, “I didn’t even know anything about the ferry reservation system.”
Burns said she learned about it from the Port Townsend bed-and-breakfast inn owner where she and family stayed.
Others interviewed at the Port Townsend ferry terminal said they avoided the wait by going online at https://business.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries/reservations/.
Internet quick
“I do everything on the Internet, because it’s quick,” said Kathy Ramin, who delivers aquatic plants from her Mount Vernon business to Port Townsend, Sequim and Port Angeles businesses twice a month.
Laura Johnson, a Washington State Ferries spokeswoman, urges anyone who can to make their reservations online, citing an average six-minute wait to make them by phone.
“That’s throughout the day, and it is usually pretty long in the morning,” Johnson said.
“We’re dealing with it as best as we can,” Johnson said, echoing a similar statement last week from David Moseley, state deputy transportation secretary for ferries.
Before the Hood Canal Bridge closed May 1 for its east-half replacement project, Johnson said the state ferries system boosted its phone staff by 3.5 positions, bringing the staff to 12 to answer the phones.
“Right now, we’re pretty much focused on Memorial Day weekend,” she said. “The reservations are already filling up for that weekend.”
The state ferries system takes reservations from 7 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. seven days a week at 888-808-7977 (in state), 5-1-1 or 206-464-6400.
Johnson said that reservations for today from Keystone and Monday from Port Townsend were almost full late Wednesday.
“We’re experiencing a lot more people calling because of the Hood Canal Bridge closure,” Johnson said.
The Port Townsend-Keystone reservation system has been in business for a year, the result of a successful pilot program first tried on the Admiralty Inlet route.
The pilot program was supported by the city of Port Townsend.
The 50-car Steilacoom II ferry owned by Pierce County and leased to state ferries until a 64-car ferry replaces it in the summer of 2010 reserves 35 spaces with the rest held for stand-by.
Sometimes those making reservations do not show, leaving additional stand-by space, she said.
Twilight ferry
During the bridge closure, there is also an 8:40 p.m. “twilight ferry” from Edmonds to Port Townsend that runs Sunday through Thursday.
The twilight ferry’s purpose is to transport freight trucks to and from the North Olympic Peninsula.
Reservations are required for commercial traffic and recommended for private vehicles.
They are not needed for walk-on passengers.
Reservations for vehicles must be made seven days in advance.
There is room for six 82-foot commercial truck/trailers and about 82 passenger cars on the ferry.
Recreational vehicles and trailers are not allowed.
Fares are based on the peak-season, cross-Sound rates matching the Kingston-Edmonds rates: passenger $6.70, vehicle and driver $14.45, large truck $115.60 for an 80-foot vehicle, plus $1.45 for each additional foot.
From April 26 to Wednesday, the state ferries system had booked 1,407 vehicles aboard the ferry, Johnson said.
“The sailings have been full or nearly full every night — the space that is not reserved in advance is filled up with stand-by customers,” Johnson said.
“Reservations on Sunday nights from Port Townsend and Thursday nights from Edmonds are the most popular.”
Of the 1,407 twilight cruises booked, she said, 897 were booked from Edmonds to Port Townsend.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
