BREMERTON — Automated drive-through toll booths should be operating at all the ferry terminals by the end of the year, speeding up ticketing and quelling complaints.
The booths are in place, but glitches remain in the program. The contractors in charge of the project, Avanade and Gateway Ticketing, are working out the kinks while testing a booth on weekends at Bainbridge Island, ferries spokeswoman Susan Harris-Huether said.
The booths are part of Washington State Ferries’ new $12.8 million electronic fare system, Wave2Go, which lets riders buy tickets online and print them at home or at terminal kiosks. The system was installed one route at a time beginning with a pilot program in January 2006 on the Port Townsend-Keystone run and culminating with the Vashon Island routes in May. More than 5 million successful transactions have been made, Harris-Huether said.
“It’s working fairly well,” she said. “There are some issues and we’re trying to work through them.”
The contractors have been given a punch list of items that need to be resolved or completed before the ferries system will sign off on phase one. They should be accomplished by Jan. 1, Harris-Huether said.
Human fare collectors will remain for those who do not purchase Wave2Go passes.
Automated ticket gates should help alleviate one of riders’ major frustrations that vehicle ticketing is slower than it was the old-fashioned way. Ferry officials knew it would be. Their top priority for Wave2Go wasn’t speed but to satisfy the state auditor’s office, which for 21 years criticized the ferries’ handling of money.
Auditors didn’t believe one person should both sell tickets and redeem them because of opportunities for theft. Much of that dual role has been removed by selling tickets online and at terminal kiosks. Cameras have also been installed to watch sales.
Vehicle-ticketing is slower now. Drivers no longer rip out a ticket from their frequent-user ticket book, hand it to the ticket-taker and drive off. Now they have to wait for their pass to be scanned manually and to be issued a receipt.
Rep. Sherry Appleton, D-Poulsbo, expected Wave2Go to be faster.
“When people work over in Seattle or Everett, they want to get home to their families,” she said. “Every minute they lose because something isn’t working right is just another frustration to their everyday lives.”
Transit systems all over the world use these types of systems successfully, and it shouldn’t be so difficult to install one here, Appleton said, adding that she’d “flat-out fire” the contractors if they were working for her.
Soon, the system could be working like the lawmaker envisions. Drivers will be able to roll up and hold their multiride commuter card up near a scanner. A gate will lift up and drivers can proceed to the holding area for boarding. The ferries system still has some work to do to separate traffic so that only those who have tickets will join that line.
Walt Elliot of the Kingston Ferry Advisory Committee said that passengers sometimes get charged twice for one ride because the scanner malfunctions or the passenger, not realizing the ticket has been scanned, swipes it again. Compounding the problem is that the ferry system can’t add a trip back to the pass; it can only credit the rider’s credit card. That, too, will change, Harris-Huether said.
There have also been instances when the number of remaining rides shown on a screen doesn’t match what’s left on the pass, Elliot said. Contractors are also working on that.
Anybody who runs into a problem with the system should call Washington State Ferries’ main information number, 1-888-808-7977, Harris-Huether said.
Elliot asked the ferry system to put issues remaining to be fixed and their status on its Web site, and he was told that it could be done.
As part of phase two, the number of rides remaining will be printed on all receipts. Now, drivers complain that they often miss the number as it quickly flashes on a screen at the toll booth.
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On the Net:
Washington State Ferries: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries/
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Information from: Kitsap Sun, http://www.kitsapsun.com/
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