The many Puget Sound ferry systems saw a boost in riders last year, as the state worked to regain its footing and other, county-run boats increased sailings.
The many Puget Sound ferry systems saw a boost in riders last year, as the state worked to regain its footing and other, county-run boats increased sailings.
The marine highways — and walkways — of the Puget Sound saw a small boost in riders last year, as the state ferry system worked to regain its footing and county-run, passenger-only boats increased sailings to make up for the state’s lost service.
In all, Washington State Ferries, the King County Water Taxi and Kitsap Transit’s ferry services counted 20,824,340 riders in 2024 — a 3% increase from 2023.
Kitsap Transit saw the biggest boost, a 12% increase, to more than 1.2 million ferry riders in 2024. Much of this growth stems from the retreat of the troubled state ferry system, which has cut back its sailings as it works to rebuild its fleet.
The state ferry system has been running a reduced schedule for years primarily due to a lack of boats, and doesn’t anticipate returning to full service until at least 2028. It has 21 boats, but at any time up to six are out for maintenance, both planned and unplanned, including the nearly two-year project to convert the Jumbo Mark II-class Wenatchee from diesel power to electric. The state agency says it needs 26 boats to run at full service, and is closing in on a contract that will construct up to five electric-powered ferries.
All of Kitsap’s ferries are passenger-only, and all five carried more people in 2024 than in 2023. The Southworth-Seattle run had the biggest gain, growing by 21%.
Kitsap operates three fast ferry routes: from Kingston, Bremerton and Southworth directly to the Seattle ferry terminal. Two other local routes connect Bremerton to Port Orchard and Annapolis.
Since December 2022, WSF has paid Kitsap Transit to sail seven additional Seattle-Bremerton round trips on weekdays, for a total of 40 daily sailings. The state agreed to pay for these sailings until it can restore two-boat service between Bremerton and Seattle, which was eliminated during the pandemic.
Because of the added sailings, ridership on Kitsap’s Bremerton Fast Ferry was 68% higher in 2024 than 2022.
As it clambers out of a ridership hole caused by the pandemic, as well as a shortage of vessels and employees, WSF also saw an increase in riders in 2024.
About 500,000 more rides were taken on the state ferry system, a 2.6% increase to more than 19.1 million. The agency had a high-water mark of 24.7 million annual passengers in 2018, a number that collapsed in 2020 during the pandemic to less than 14 million. The system has gained riders year by year since then.
The state system had its lowest number of canceled sailings since 2020, a sign for some that WSF has found its bearings. Still, the agency only had 145,720 scheduled sailings in 2019, about 17,000 fewer than in 2019.
The biggest change for the state is in the number of walk-on passengers, which jumped by 224,000 — nearly a 6% gain over the year before. WSF credits tourism and workers returning to offices for the increase.
Systemwide, the run with the most substantial increase in riders was Point Defiance-Tahlequah, which connects Tacoma and the southern end of Vashon Island. Walk-ons went up by nearly 10%.
All other runs saw gains except for Mukilteo-Clinton and Anacortes-San Juan Islands.
The Mukilteo-Clinton sailing also had a spike in walk-ons — a 9.4% increase to 250,866. But a modest decline in vehicles meant its total ridership dropped by 0.2%. The route remains the busiest in the system for motorists.
Ridership on Anacortes-San Juan Islands decreased by 0.7%, with no real change in vehicles and a drop in walk-on passengers.
The sailings between Anacortes and Lopez, Shaw, Orcas and San Juan islands have been hit the hardest by canceled sailings. Last summer, about 20% of sailings here were canceled.
In September, then-Gov. Jay Inslee ordered $1.5 million in emergency funds to prop up service in the San Juan archipelago. Most of the money is going to privately-run water taxis and small barge services, which will replace a run when WSF cancels a sailing.
Finally, the passenger-only King County Water Taxi saw an increase of about 50,000 riders in 2024 on its two runs from downtown Seattle to Vashon Island and West Seattle.
The increase in riders happened on both runs, but can primarily be credited to the Seattle-Vashon run, which nearly doubled its passengers beginning in July.
That was when four new round-trip sailings began, funded with $3.17 million from the state specifically to make up for lost sailings by the state ferries system.
These sailings added to the existing six King County Water Taxi sailings, which run from Vashon between about 6 a.m. and 7 p.m.
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