Cut ferries’ sailings, report suggests

Published 11:17 pm Tuesday, September 4, 2007

OLYMPIA — Washington State Ferries is serving its customers well but wasting millions of dollars a year to do so, according to a state performance audit issued Tuesday.

The report found up to $10 million a year in labor and fuel costs could be saved by axing dozens of lightly-traveled sailings made by its vehicle ferries.

Nearly $1.4 million of the total would come from eliminating round trips departing each day from terminals in Edmonds, Mukilteo and Port Townsend.

“We can’t disagree that customer service is important. But we have to look at the costs and benefits of the operation,” said Mindy Chambers, spokeswoman for State Auditor Brian Sonntag, who released the report.

Paula Hammond, the state’s interim secretary of transportation, said it is easy to understand that running less-than-full boats costs money.

Ferry officials also must deal with residents’ desire for more service, legislators’ control of the agency budget and labor contracts that set parameters for day-to-day operations, she said.

“You can’t look at that finding in isolation,” she said. “It’s good they point it out.”

State Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, who is chairwoman of the Senate Transportation Committee, was less generous in her reaction.

The ferry system is a state highway and any cut in service limits how people get from one place to another, she said.

“We could shut down the road to Mount St. Helens. We could shut down the road to Mount Baker. We could shut down the highways to all the small towns in Eastern and Western Washington and we could save millions of dollars in the transportation budget on maintenance,” she said.

“Either we are a statewide transportation system, or we are not,” she said.

Haugen and Hammond pointed out that legislators are knee deep in a comprehensive study on ways of financing the ferry system. In the next two years it will produce recommendations on issues like fares, service levels and replacing the aging 1920s-era Steel Electric ferries.

“Certainly this (report) can feed into that,” Chambers said.

Ernst and Young prepared the performance audit under an $852,600 state contract.

The firm made 10 findings and recommendations based on data of ferry system operations from June 30, 2004, through June 30, 2006.

Its report did not examine the agency’s fare collection system or vessel maintenance program, including its care of Steel Electrics. Those will be the subject of separate audits due out later this year.

The 82-page analysis focused mostly on administration of the Eagle Harbor maintenance facility on Bainbridge Island. The report concluded the site lacks adequate management oversight and could save at least $368,000 a year by curbing overtime and improving other practices there.

Hammond said the recommendations regarding Eagle Harbor were “very good” and would be pursued.

It had one finding on cutting ferry service, which will surely ignite greater debate.

Washington State Ferries operates car ferries on eight routes on Puget Sound. In 2006, it served 23.8 million riders and its operation and maintenance costs were $186.2 million, the report stated.

Ernst and Young auditors examined round-trip ridership on each route and found many vessels departed well under capacity.

Where they found two consecutive sailings operating at 45 percent capacity or less, they suggested cutting service to create a single round trip at 90 percent capacity.

In some cases, if they found three consecutive runs of 60 percent or less, they recommended erasing one to make the average on the remaining ones 90 percent.

The report recommended eliminating runs in the morning, midday and evening hours; the number and times varies with the routes.

For example, it concluded a sailing should be erased every night in summer on the Mukilteo-Clinton and Edmonds-Kingston routes.

No changes should be made in summer for passengers traveling between Port Townsend and Keystone. In the spring and fall, four of the midday sailings on the route should be cut, according to the report.

In accordance with state law, two hearings are planned this month on the findings.

The Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee will discuss it Sept. 26 and a House appropriations subcommittee will do the same Sept. 28. Both meetings are in Olympia.