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Post by ferryfast admin on Feb 1, 2006 22:49:49 GMT -5
Wednesday, February 1, 2006
Capitol Watch: Take the helm
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD seattlepi.nwsource.com/
Two Kitsap County legislators offer what they argue are last-ditch efforts to save passenger-only ferry service for those commuting to Seattle from Vashon Island and Southworth. Gov. Christine Gregoire shouldn't allow it to come to this.
Rep. Beverly Woods, R-Kingston, and Sen. Phil Rockefeller, D-Bainbridge Island, want the ferry system to sell the two passenger-only boats now carrying Vashon and Southworth riders, as well as two much newer but mothballed passenger-only ferries. The proceeds would help subsidize passenger-ferry service from Southworth, Bremerton and Kingston provided by counties or local transit districts, and likely run by private operators. The state would still operate the Vashon-Seattle route.
Senate Transportation Committee Chairwoman Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, has provoked such acts of desperation by insisting that passenger-only service should be provided by the private sector. She's rejected the more sensible Vashon-Southworth-Seattle triangle route using the now-mothballed fast ferries.
The Legislature last year put the secretary of transportation under the governor's direct authority. The governor needs to respond to her new transportation authority by taking the lead in defining the ferry system's role in moving commuters across Puget Sound.
The governor then needs to exert her influence over legislators who would compromise the ferry system's mission by failing to fund this regional mass transit.
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