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‘Quick wins’ to fix the Fauntleroy ferry terminal

Apr 6, 2017, 6:54 AM

Fauntleroy ferry...

(File, Associated Press)

(File, Associated Press)

The ride across Puget Sound is beautiful, but one complaint from 成人X站 drivers comes up again and again: Why does it take so long get on the ferry at Fauntleroy?

Ferry riders know the Fauntleroy/Vashon/Southworth route as 鈥淭he Triangle.” The route between West Seattle, the island, and the Kitsap Peninsula is getting a makeover, but fixing this unique route has been challenging.

RELATED: Ferry riders respond to West Seattle terminal solutions

“We have a lot of constraints in this route,” said Brian Mannion with Washington State Ferries. “Like a dock with one slip so only one boat can come in and out; three different destinations and a lot of people trying to get the same way at rush hour. Out of Seattle in the afternoon gets really, really busy in the summer.”

Mannion said that鈥檚 why the Triangle Task Force was born. It’s a group made up of community members, ferry riders and experts. Their first task was to come up with “quick wins” and that鈥檚 why you鈥檒l see another ticketing change at the Triangle Route this summer.

Fauntleroy ferry changes

“We鈥檙e trying to improve toll booth operations at the Faulteroy terminal,”聽Mannion said. “It鈥檚 a small dock. It can鈥檛 fit as many cars on the dock that as can fit on the boat, which means once we load everyone off that dock, the slowest point is around the toll booth. So we’re going to try a little bit of different staffing and see if that can bump that number up a little bit to get more cars through when we need it the most.”

In an effort to fix the traffic flow problem, WSF tried to change the ticketing process at the toll booth on the Triangle route last summer — it didn鈥檛 go well.

“Last summer was pretty rough,” Mannion said. “We tried a few things to fix it last summer and it didn’t work. The place where we ran into trouble was drivers didn鈥檛 know about the new ticketing process.”

Drivers will likely hear about the new ticketing process in May. And yes, I asked: There鈥檚 an app for planes, trains and automobiles, so why not the ferries?

“That鈥檚 not something that is not under the scope of quick wins,” Mannion said. “We鈥檙e looking at a bunch of different options for the longer term for ticketing across the system, but this is the system we have now and we have to work with it.”

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‘Quick wins’ to fix the Fauntleroy ferry terminal