SEQUIM — Imagine walking to the downtown transit center, catching a bus at 10 a.m. and sailing to downtown Seattle in time for lunch.
Or perhaps you have an appointment at the University of Washington Medical Center.
Or you’re hungry for the sights at the Seattle Art Museum.
If the Emerald City beckons, you might like an express bus to whisk you to Kingston, where you could catch a foot ferry to Seattle.
It could happen, said Sequim City Councilman John Beitzel.
He’s been talking with Clallam, Jefferson and Kitsap county transit officials about the bus-ferry pairing.
“We agreed this is something worth pursuing,” said Clallam Transit general manager Terry Weed.
He said he and Jefferson Transit chief Dave Turissini will soon schedule a meeting to discuss express service and how to fund it.
Obstacles in the way
There are a number of obstacles in the way of project, including a sales tax increase that would need to be approved by the voters in Kitsap County and no ferry now sailing between Kingston and Seattle.
The Aqua Express foot ferry from Kingston to Seattle stopped running last October due to increasing fuel costs and declining ridership.
Under Weed’s and Turissini’s vision, the express bus would start in Port Angeles, pick up passengers in Sequim and at a park-and-ride lot on state Highway 19 west of the Hood Canal Bridge, and drop everyone at the Kingston ferry terminal.
