PORT TOWNSEND — Pennco Transportation president Kevin Harris surprised Chamber of Commerce members Monday when he tearfully announced that he will suspend his door-to-door North Olympic Peninsula-to-Seattle shuttle line next week.
“Whether you provide air, rail or ground transportation, operating a passenger transportation company is a very difficult proposition,” Harris said in a prepared statement he read during the chamber’s weekly luncheon attended by more than 50 people at The Commons at Fort Worden.
He made announcement in lieu of his originally scheduled presentation on his efforts to provide express shuttle service between the Peninsula and Kingston ferry terminals to link up with new passenger ferry service to Seattle.
“I think the last few years have been especially difficult for everyone in the industry, but as our employees and vendors will attest, the past few years have been especially difficult for Pennco,” Harris, a Port Townsend resident and businessman, said of the Carlsborg-based company he has owned for two years.
Harris said transportation companies like Pennco — including Port Angeles-based scheduled-stop operator Olympic Bus Lines — have relied on some form of government subsidy to remain solvent.
Pennco, however, has received no subsidies, Harris said.
Reliance on fares
“What this means is that Pennco must rely solely on the fares we collect from our passengers to make it,” he said.
The public Jefferson and Clallam Transit systems would not survive under similar circumstances, according to Harris.
“And this is exactly the situation we at Pennco find ourselves in,” he said.
Several chamber members rallied to Harris’ support, offering help to possibly secure grants or other funding that would help him continue the operation, which employs 20.
The closure, which Harris said will be made official May 20, does not affect his Royal Tours, which takes visitors to Victoria via the MV Coho ferry out of Port Angeles.
State issues
Harris, who became choked up and wept at times during his remarks, accused the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission of “bias” in favor of his competitor, Olympic Bus Lines.
“My opinion is the staff at WUTC are biased in their opinion of Pennco, have been incredibly narrow in their interpretation of WUTC rules and as a result have held Pennco to a stricter interpretation of their rules than they hold others,” Harris said.
“This quite frankly is unfair.”
He said during the past two years, “I’ve been through a lot with Pennco, but the last two weeks did me in.”
He alleged that staffers with the Utilities and Transportation Commission were building a criminal case against him over the illegal use of other certified operators to drive his vehicles while Pennco’s liability and damage insurance had lapsed.
Harris said he never operated his company without insurance.
A Utilities and Transportation Commission spokesman said Monday that there was no criminal investigation under way involving Harris.
“The only investigation we have had with him had to do with his insurance issue,” said Tim Sweeney, WUTC’s public affairs officer.
Sweeney said Harris, not under any further investigation, was free to continue operations “and we’re disappointed that he is not going to do that.”
