On Valentines Day the House Transportation Committee heard testimony on HB 2497, a bill that would create a work group to evaluate funding requirements for the state ferry system. 

This is not the first time this question has come up. In 2009 the legislature’s Joint Transportation Committee published a detailed report that analyzed long-range funding needs for the ferry system. The issues today are very similar, but the situation is now far more dire. The ferry system’s 2040 Long Range Plan (adopted 2019) estimated the agency was facing a budget shortfall of nearly seven billion dollars, mostly to meet fleet renewal costs. It is now apparent the actual budget gap is much larger. This is due to rising labor costs, much higher costs for ferry electrification, terminal improvements, and costs for keeping old ferries in service beyond their planned retirement date.

These developments highlight the importance of the cost side of the budget equation. HB 2497 seems to focus primarily on identifying new revenue sources, which is an important question, but WSF’s cost trends have been unsustainable for years. For example, from 2013 through 2022:

• Cost per hour of service increased 47%
• Cost per service mile increased 51%
• Cost per passenger increased 60%

Meanwhile ridership decreased by more than 22%. These unfavorable trends will not be reversed simply by finding new revenue sources. A sustainable financial plan will require reining in WSF’s escalating costs and increasing operational efficiency. 

The bill asks for preliminary findings of the work group by January of 2025 and a final report with recommendations by June 2026.  That’s a pretty typical timeline for study of a state agency, but it may not provide answers soon enough. Later this spring WSF is scheduled to receive bids on the hybrid-electric ferry procurement. This follows the failed effort at negotiating a contract with Vigor Industries shipyard. That extended process resulted in a proposal that exceeded the available budget by hundreds of millions of dollars. The ferry procurement represents an investment of well over a billion dollars and it will set a course for WSF for decades to come. If the legislature is determined to get a handle on WSF’s finances it should start with a clear understanding of the long-term implications of the ferry electrification program.  HB 2497 can shed light on that question, but unless the timeline can be accelerated the findings may not come in time to inform key decisions.