Paula Hammond is the Washington state secretary of transportation, so her opinion on the ferry crisis counts more than many. She has a column on the Opinion page of this morning’s Seattle Times:
Washington’s ferry system must meet the needs of the communities it serves
THE Washington state ferry system is in trouble. Our revised draft long-range plan released Jan. 31 describes needs ranging from $1.3 to 3.2 billion in new funding over the next 22 years, depending on which ferry future you envision.
We operate the largest U.S. ferry fleet, carrying 23 million passengers a year. But ridership is falling. The costs of operations are climbing. Meanwhile the system does not have a sufficient, dedicated source of funding.
We love our ferry system. The ferries are the workhorse of the marine highway system; reliable and dependable. We do not want to lose our Northwest icons.
While searching for a link to that piece, I found another recent opinion piece by Paula Hammond. This one in the Post-Intelligencer on January 30:
The Jan. 20 editorial, “State Ferries: A sinking system,” claims that the “ferry system goes from bad to worse month after month.”
I agree. The ferry system is facing big challenges — aging boats, service interruptions, inadequate funding — and some of those problems may well be of the ferry system’s own making. My priority is to overcome those and other challenges. I am learning from the past, but I am focused on the future.
Gov. Chris Gregoire has directed me to work with our key partners to overhaul the ferry system and make sure that it remains safe and efficient for generations to come.
But the slow decline of parts of the system didn’t happen overnight and won’t be fixed overnight.
T
