Keystone left with older ferries

Published 10:55 pm Saturday, June 23, 2007

In the next few years, Whidbey Island will likely get two brand-new ferries.

However, they won’t replace the oldest boats.

Despite initial promises, the new 144-car vessels will not replace the 80-year-old Steel Electric-class ferries that run between Keystone on Whidbey Island and Port Townsend, said Joy Goldenberg, communications manager for Washington State Ferries.

Instead, two of the four yet-to-be-built ferries likely will replace the 130-car Issaquah-class ferries that travel between Mukilteo and Clinton, Goldenberg said. Those ferries, the Cathlamet and the Kitsap, were built in 1981 and 1980, and may be sent to replace older ferries on other routes.

On June 14, after years of debate and litigation, three major boat builders agreed to work together to build the four new state ferries. Waterfront communities from Friday Harbor to Bremerton are waiting to see if they will be affected.

Though plans are not final, Washington State Ferries currently intends to put one of the new ferries to work on the Seattle-Bremerton route. The remaining ferry would serve the route along Anacortes and the San Juan Islands, Goldenberg said.

The new ferries may eventually make it possible to replace two Steel Electric-class ferries that now serve Anacortes and the San Juan Islands.

However, the ferry Klickitat and other Steel Electric vessels will continue to serve Port Townsend and Keystone, Goldenberg said. That’s because the ferry terminals in those towns were designed specifically for those vessels, and none of the state’s other ferries are small or agile enough to operate there.

“These new vessels that we’re building are not going to go on the Keystone-Port Townsend route,” Goldenberg said. “We do have Steel Electrics in other parts of the system that could most definitely be replaced at some point in the future.”

The Legislature has budgeted $321 million to build the new ferries, a process that is expected to take several years. The first ferry is scheduled to be finished in 2009, but that date may change, Goldenberg said.

On Whidbey Island, commuters used to riding the Cathlamet and the Kitsap have mixed feelings about the proposed changes.

“I’m sure there’s improvements they’re going to make in them and enhancements, but on the other hand, those good old ferries have been there since I started coming to Whidbey Island,” said Nancy Rowan, executive director of the Langley Chamber of Commerce. “I think it will have an impact and I think people will be happy to see new ferries because there is an occasional breakdown, and with commuters, that kind of wreaks havoc on their commute. But we will miss the old ferries.”

Reporter Kaitlin Manry: 425-339-3292 or kmanry@heraldnet.com.