COUPEVILLE — A ferry reservation system for the Port Townsend-Keystone route must begin as soon as possible to accommodate the visitors to Port Townsend and North Olympic Peninsula, Port Townsend’s mayor said Thursday.
“We need to get on it before people miss the ferries,” Michelle Sandoval told Washington State Ferries officials during a Port Townsend-Keystone Ferry Route Partnership Group meeting Thursday afternoon at Fort Casey State Park near the Keystone ferry landing on Whidby Island.
Sandoval has pressed for a reservation system for more than a year, with the intention of guaranteeing travelers a spot on the ferry that would allow them to visit Port Townsend while they wait.
It is now expected to begin in June.
The mayor said there are estimates that about 100,000 people could be left at the dock this tourist season, compared to when Steel Electric-class ferries served the Port Townsend-Keystone route.
Those 80-year-old vessels each carried about 64 cars and more than 600 passengers before they were pulled from the route Nov. 20 because of extensive hull damage.
The Pierce County-owned lone ferry on the route this season, the Steilacoom II, carries about 54 cars and 300 passengers.
It picks up passengers every 90 minutes compared to every 45 minutes on the Steel Electrics.
Leonard Smith, state ferries operations manager, said a state ferries reservation systems already exists for commercial vehicles running between Anacortes and San Juan Island, and twice a day between Sydney, British Columbia, and Anacortes.
