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Kitsap Fast Ferries
Kitsap Fast Ferries is a passenger ferry service operating between Seattle and Kitsap County in the U.S. state of Washington. It is funded and operated by Kitsap Transit and began service in July 2017, with a single boat traveling between Seattle and Bremerton. A second route, from Seattle to Kingston, launched in November 2018, and a third route serving Seattle and Southworth began operating in March 2021. In 2025, the system had a ridership of 1,187,800.
The passenger-only ferry service, approved by voters in 2016, was preceded by one operated by Washington State Ferries between 1986 and 2003. This state-run system ceased operations after a class-action lawsuit forced its vessels to slow down when traveling through Rich Passage to reduce wake damage. Kitsap Transit briefly operated its own passenger ferries from 2004 to 2007, but failed to receive voter approval for two sales tax funding measures. The agency commissioned a low-wake vessel, Rich Passage 1, which was used from 2011 to 2012 for research and trial runs that determined it could operate at high speeds without creating a damaging wake.
During the late 19th century and early 20th century, the Puget Sound region was served by a variety of passenger steamship ferries known collectively as the "mosquito fleet". Some of these routes connected Kitsap County to docks in Seattle, eventually replaced by automobile-and-passenger ferry service operated by the Puget Sound Navigation Company, which became the state-operated Washington State Ferries system in 1951.
Washington State Ferries began exploring passenger-only ferry service between Seattle and Bremerton, Southworth and Vashon in the mid-1980s to help ease auto ferry traffic and quicken passenger commutes. A 400-passenger catamaran was leased from a private tour operator in 1985 for trial runs and began passenger service on October 15, 1986, serving the Seattle–Bremerton route. The $2.5 million ferry, known as the MV Express (later renamed MV Tyee), made the run in 38 minutes and averaged 28 to 29 miles per hour (45 to 47 km/h); though it failed to carry enough passengers to meet state expectations in its early months, it steadily grew to 22,000 monthly riders in 1989.
Operating funds for the ferry system, reliant on gas taxes raised by the state, were left out of the 1989 budget because of a dispute in the state government. As a result, the MV Tyee and two additional passenger-only ferries intended to serve Vashon Island were pulled from service in June 1989. The three ferries were loaned to the San Francisco Bay Area after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake left the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge closed for repairs. In January 1990, the ferries returned to the Seattle area, and began regular passenger service on April 23, 1990.
By July 1990, however, the ferries were voluntarily slowed from 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph) to 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) while passing through Sinclair Inlet and Rich Passage, on the approach to Bremerton, after shoreline residents complained of erosion and other damage from the wakes created by the faster ferries. The MV Chinook debuted in 1998 to replace the MV Tyee, incorporating a lightweight body and water-jet engines designed to create a smaller wake at high speeds. In March 1999, a group of 113 Rich Passage residents filed a class-action lawsuit against Washington State Ferries, seeking restitution for damaged waterfront properties that had been affected by wakes from the MV Chinook. An injunction from the King County Superior Court in July forced the ferries to slow to 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) in Rich Passage, adding an extra 10 to 15 minutes to the Seattle–Bremerton run. In March 2000, the Washington State Supreme Court lifted the injunction, allowing the MV Chinook and sister vessel MV Snohomish to operate at high speeds by May. Washington State Ferries voluntarily slowed the two vessels to 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) in October 2001, after concluding in an environmental study that the ferries were causing significant beach erosion in a small section of Rich Passage. The lawsuit was settled in April 2002, with the state paying $4.5 million and limiting ferry speeds to 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph).
The voter approval of Initiative 695 in 1999, which eliminated the motor vehicle excise tax used to fund ferry service, cut $93 million from the ferry system's budget by the end of 2001. Voter rejection of 2002's Referendum 51, which would have funded the replacement of car ferries with a gas tax, led the state to consider eliminating passenger-only service to Bremerton and Vashon Island to make up for the shortfall. In May 2003, the state legislature approved cuts to ferry service, including the elimination of passenger-only ferries. Passenger-only ferry service ceased operations on September 20, 2003, and the MV Chinook and MV Snohomish were sold in 2008 to Golden Gate Ferries in the San Francisco Bay Area after an unsuccessful auction on eBay.
Prior to the cessation of passenger-only service in 2003, the state legislature passed a bill allowing non-state entities to operate their own public or private ferries near Washington State Ferries routes. Kitsap Transit, a public transit agency serving Kitsap County with bus service, decided to place a 0.3 percent sales tax increase and motor vehicle excise tax on the November 2003 ballot to fund a passenger-only ferry service to replace the state-run ferries. The ballot measure was rejected by 61 percent of voters, with support mostly coming from Bainbridge Island, downtown Bremerton, and Kingston.
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Kitsap Fast Ferries
Kitsap Fast Ferries is a passenger ferry service operating between Seattle and Kitsap County in the U.S. state of Washington. It is funded and operated by Kitsap Transit and began service in July 2017, with a single boat traveling between Seattle and Bremerton. A second route, from Seattle to Kingston, launched in November 2018, and a third route serving Seattle and Southworth began operating in March 2021. In 2025, the system had a ridership of 1,187,800.
The passenger-only ferry service, approved by voters in 2016, was preceded by one operated by Washington State Ferries between 1986 and 2003. This state-run system ceased operations after a class-action lawsuit forced its vessels to slow down when traveling through Rich Passage to reduce wake damage. Kitsap Transit briefly operated its own passenger ferries from 2004 to 2007, but failed to receive voter approval for two sales tax funding measures. The agency commissioned a low-wake vessel, Rich Passage 1, which was used from 2011 to 2012 for research and trial runs that determined it could operate at high speeds without creating a damaging wake.
During the late 19th century and early 20th century, the Puget Sound region was served by a variety of passenger steamship ferries known collectively as the "mosquito fleet". Some of these routes connected Kitsap County to docks in Seattle, eventually replaced by automobile-and-passenger ferry service operated by the Puget Sound Navigation Company, which became the state-operated Washington State Ferries system in 1951.
Washington State Ferries began exploring passenger-only ferry service between Seattle and Bremerton, Southworth and Vashon in the mid-1980s to help ease auto ferry traffic and quicken passenger commutes. A 400-passenger catamaran was leased from a private tour operator in 1985 for trial runs and began passenger service on October 15, 1986, serving the Seattle–Bremerton route. The $2.5 million ferry, known as the MV Express (later renamed MV Tyee), made the run in 38 minutes and averaged 28 to 29 miles per hour (45 to 47 km/h); though it failed to carry enough passengers to meet state expectations in its early months, it steadily grew to 22,000 monthly riders in 1989.
Operating funds for the ferry system, reliant on gas taxes raised by the state, were left out of the 1989 budget because of a dispute in the state government. As a result, the MV Tyee and two additional passenger-only ferries intended to serve Vashon Island were pulled from service in June 1989. The three ferries were loaned to the San Francisco Bay Area after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake left the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge closed for repairs. In January 1990, the ferries returned to the Seattle area, and began regular passenger service on April 23, 1990.
By July 1990, however, the ferries were voluntarily slowed from 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph) to 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) while passing through Sinclair Inlet and Rich Passage, on the approach to Bremerton, after shoreline residents complained of erosion and other damage from the wakes created by the faster ferries. The MV Chinook debuted in 1998 to replace the MV Tyee, incorporating a lightweight body and water-jet engines designed to create a smaller wake at high speeds. In March 1999, a group of 113 Rich Passage residents filed a class-action lawsuit against Washington State Ferries, seeking restitution for damaged waterfront properties that had been affected by wakes from the MV Chinook. An injunction from the King County Superior Court in July forced the ferries to slow to 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) in Rich Passage, adding an extra 10 to 15 minutes to the Seattle–Bremerton run. In March 2000, the Washington State Supreme Court lifted the injunction, allowing the MV Chinook and sister vessel MV Snohomish to operate at high speeds by May. Washington State Ferries voluntarily slowed the two vessels to 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) in October 2001, after concluding in an environmental study that the ferries were causing significant beach erosion in a small section of Rich Passage. The lawsuit was settled in April 2002, with the state paying $4.5 million and limiting ferry speeds to 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph).
The voter approval of Initiative 695 in 1999, which eliminated the motor vehicle excise tax used to fund ferry service, cut $93 million from the ferry system's budget by the end of 2001. Voter rejection of 2002's Referendum 51, which would have funded the replacement of car ferries with a gas tax, led the state to consider eliminating passenger-only service to Bremerton and Vashon Island to make up for the shortfall. In May 2003, the state legislature approved cuts to ferry service, including the elimination of passenger-only ferries. Passenger-only ferry service ceased operations on September 20, 2003, and the MV Chinook and MV Snohomish were sold in 2008 to Golden Gate Ferries in the San Francisco Bay Area after an unsuccessful auction on eBay.
Prior to the cessation of passenger-only service in 2003, the state legislature passed a bill allowing non-state entities to operate their own public or private ferries near Washington State Ferries routes. Kitsap Transit, a public transit agency serving Kitsap County with bus service, decided to place a 0.3 percent sales tax increase and motor vehicle excise tax on the November 2003 ballot to fund a passenger-only ferry service to replace the state-run ferries. The ballot measure was rejected by 61 percent of voters, with support mostly coming from Bainbridge Island, downtown Bremerton, and Kingston.