Associated Press
TACOMA — Ferry customers rushed into the Point Defiance Park ticket booth to purchase books of ferry tickets on the final days before being hit with a 12.5 percent fare increase.
The price of a book of 10 one-way tickets, good for 90 days, jumps to $94 on Sunday — up from $82.
The state Transportation Commission unanimously approved the increase last month. It’s the second in a five-year schedule aimed at boosting the percentage of operating costs covered by fare box revenue.
The commission estimates the system will gain $6 million in revenue from the rate hike. A 20-percent rate hike took effect last June. Eventually, the state aims to have ferry fares cover 80 percent of costs, up from the current 65 percent.
The general rate hike comes as a double whammy, since the annual peak season rate goes into effect Sunday, as well. It lasts through October.
With dual the increase, a round trip between Bremerton and Seattle will cost a car and driver $22.50. When the peak-season increase drops off in mid-October, the trip will cost $18 — up from $16.
Initiative 695, the voter-approved initiative that led the state to cut its motor-vehicle excise tax to $30, eliminated 20 percent of the ferry system’s operating funding and 75 percent of capital funding for boats and terminals.
Rates for a car and driver on the Mukilteo-Clinton route will increase to $7 from $5.50 during the peak season and to $6.25 from $5 in the off season.
For a look at all routes, see www.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries/
index.cfm.
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