New fast ferry could come to Kingston-Seattle route by 2027 at the earliest

Kitsap Transit has secured 80% of the funding needed to buy a new fast ferry for the Kingston–Seattle fast ferry route and replace a nearly 30-year-old vessel.

The $13.5 million in federal funding comes down from the Federal Transit Administration’s passenger ferry grant program and was announced on September 11 by Senator Patty Murray. 

A new ferry will cost $17.5 million, leaving Kitsap Transit to come up with the rest of the funding. The extra $4 million left on the tab will come from local sources, such as sales tax revenue or capital reserves, and be included in Kitsap Transit’s 2025 capital budget request to its board of commissioners, said spokesman Sanjay Bhatt.

Kitsap Transit plans to place the new vessel, once purchased on the Kington–Seattle fast ferry route to replace the M/V Finest, which was built in 1996 and refurbished in 2018. The hull and engines on the aging 349-passenger vessel are “at or near the end of their useful life,” Kitsap Transit reported in a press release.

It would cost between $14 million and $17 million to extend the life of the Finest, but a new vessel would “incorporate cleaner diesel engines, and could resemble Kitsap Transit’s bow-loading vessels M/V Enetai and Commander, each of which has capacity for 250 passengers,” Kitsap Transit wrote.

“We believe having an additional bow-loading vessel, like the Enetai and Commander, will improve reliability on the route,” Bhatt said of the new vessel.

The Finest has been operating the Kingston–Seattle route without backup since July when Kitsap Transit pulled the Commander and Enetai ferries from the Kingston and Southworth ferry routes respectively to undergo unanticipated repairs to their jet propulsion systems. 

Kitsap Transit has warned riders that the route could suffer cancellations without the help of a backup vessel and in the last week of August, sailings on the route were canceled for five days as a vessel was substituted in to cover the Bremerton–Seattle route after one of its boats suffered an an engine failure. 

The delivery date of the new vessel is unknown for now, Bhatt said. The vessel's specifications still need to be finalized and a construction bid needs to be issued at the head of the long process which could see delays from supply-chain issues and labor shortages. 

Bhatt also warned that the outcome of an initiative to repeal the Climate Commitment Act in November will have a “definite impact on future revenue for transit projects.”

Riders shouldn’t expect the new fast ferry to go into service until 2027 at the earliest, Bhatt said. Once the vessel is delivered, it will also need to undergo several months of testing.