Thursday, October 1, 2026
A potential passenger ferry service from Olympia to Des Moines could prove more useful as an economic development tool than as a way to reduce commute times.
The Port of Olympia Commission discussed the issue in response to public comments about whether the port should spend around $50,000 on a demand study for ferry service. The public comments were made at a meeting on Monday, Feb. 9.
Among the people who testified was Carla Wulfsberg, who addressed transportation times.
“This ferry only makes sense if a drive in a car or on a bus between two points is significantly more time than a ferry,” Wolfsburg said. “The ferry service north, which is parallel to I-5 (Interstate 5), makes absolutely no sense.”
In response, Commissioner Jasmine Vasavada agreed in part but also said a ferry service was conceptualized differently.
“When people hear the word ferry, they think about a commuter service,” Vasavada said. “I think that the reason this came up to us from the Economic Development Committee of our community advisory group was more as an economic development tool.”
“I think it's probably true what (Wolfsburg) testified, that this is not a candidate for people who seek to commute from Olympia to Seattle on a daily basis, (but) more about a destination and the kind of activity that you do as part of a leisure opportunity.”
Vasavada added that the service could be beneficial for certain travelers, who find travel through I-5 difficult or prohibitive.
The ferry service could also promise certainty in commute time compared to I-5, where travel time can be unpredictable, according to comments by Anthony Hemstad, former chair of the Economic Development Committee of the Port of Olympia Citizens Advisory Committee.
Commissioner Joel Hansen added rider preference should also be a factor, sharing he frequently chose a water-based route from Boston Logan International Airport to Hingham, Massachusetts, even when it was not the fastest option.
Commissioner Krag Unsoeld, however, questioned whether the service would meaningfully serve residents outside Olympia. He said half of Thurston County residents live in rural areas and suggested the ferry would mostly benefit Olympia residents.
That concern prompted Hansen to ask Port of Olympia Community and Economic Development Director Mike Reid to describe what the geographic draw could look like for the ferry service.
Reid said the question is precisely what a formal demand study would answer. Reid acknowledged that reduced commute times using ferry service would not be the main draw, but it is not only the factor to consider.
Reid noted parking at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport for multiple days can significantly increase travel costs, which could influence the “break point” at which a ferry becomes competitive.
Vasavada also mentioned the cost of ferry service could be weighed against airport shuttles.
“When you compare it to the cost of taking an airporter to get to the airport, which right now for me every time I cost it out is $150, I think there is a viable path here,” she said.
Reid said a demand study would assess whether enough rate-paying customers exist to attract private sector interest.
“That's a pretty common step associated with economic development. Sometimes the enterprise here … has to do some of that initial research to be able to attract the private sector,” Reid said.
If a demand study demonstrated sufficient interest, Reid said it would be followed by an economic impact study, a feasibility analysis examining the port’s operational capability, and potentially a pilot project with a private operator.
Reid emphasized the port would not operate the ferry itself, but would serve as a facilitator if a private company chose to move forward.
27 comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here
Olyrkrgrrl
It sounds like a luxury for the few, rather than a service that would benefit the many. Money spent for the sake of spending money...going nowhere. We can do better.
Friday, February 13 Report this
KarenM
This looks like something that would be fun or entertaining for a few people but it is very hard to justify spending public money on it.
Riders would still need to transfer to land based transportation once you get to Des Moines for any further destinations.
We now have very good options for going north on I-5 without driving. One of those is the bus and you can now mix in light rail from Federal Way north. Or take the train. Those are not any more time or transfers than the ferry would be. The ferry will not be frequent enough to be more convenient than these other options.
Friday, February 13 Report this
BobJacobs
What a waste of time and money. Ferry service has been studied in the past and never found economically feasible. Not surprising considering our small population.
The only good thing is the statement that any ferry service would be operated by a private party. The Port didn't do this with the boat fuel dock, and the result has been a financial disaster. No government subsidies!
Bob Jacobs
Friday, February 13 Report this
Person of Interest
Ferry Service to the Port of Olympia will come when private industry knocks on the Ports door. Service to SeaTac? You would need service on such a frequent basis to meet flights that leave at 6:00am or 11:00 pm. SeaTac is 60 miles away. Everyone who lives here has already worked in the congestion issues into airport travel. I travel up and down to Seattle and commutes to the airport range from 60 minutes to 90 minutes. How will you get from Des Moines to the airport? The demo ferry could not make it 1/2 way on a charge. ( you could not even see out the windows). The cost of purchasing a ferry and maintaining it will have to be subsidized by the public, There will be no appetite for public investment as transportation budgets are already underwater and any money will go to light rail and buses that move hundreds of and thousands of commuters. Please Port focus on public access and leave these shiny objects behind. The Port has already invested in $30,000 in the initial presentation by the consultant. Why spend any more?
Friday, February 13 Report this
Bobwubbena
Leadership is a tough role! Many critics, but only a few risk-taking leaders. Bob J, you had your chance at City leadership. Please provide suggestions of substance, not just criticism. The I 5 Corridor and the Nisqually bridges along with the Capitol I-5 complex is a huge future problem. that will shape the future answers. The are all part of the equation--No Growth has long been a losing battle because no one has a solution. We need creative leaders, not idealogues and wishful thinking or Monday morning quarterbacks--we are not a Super Bowl winner in Olympia as a community--just want to bees.
Friday, February 13 Report this
chrispc2u
Small commuter ferries and adding car pool lanes are temporary band aid fixes that do little to alleviate the actual problem of traffic congestion. I continue to scratch my head how stupid American politicians and transportation planners are compared with their European counterparts who have designed and implemented comprehensive rail systems and continue to develop them. Portland did that with MAX. Get with the program, America all the major Asian, South American and European countries are leaving us in the dust!
Friday, February 13 Report this
Quadlok
Ferry service just doesn't work out of Olympia due to local geography. The dock would have to be in Nisqually Reach to make any sense and that area does not have the road or transit infrastructure for it.
Friday, February 13 Report this
Pkt3154
This sounds like a solution looking for a problem. Leave it to the private sector to decide if the idea is worth investing in. If you get private investor interest, I could see the Port seeing what they could do to make it viable from a red tape and infrastructure viewpoint. As planned, this just feels like a waste of taxpayer money on a pipe dream. A better approach would be to put out a request for proposals and see what role the Port could play.
Friday, February 13 Report this
OlyBlues
If the demand was there, the private sector would be salivating at this opportunity. They aren't because it is not profitable and does not pencil out. Port Commissioners should abandon this grandiose idea and focus on real opportunities that turn a profit instead of continuing to bleed taxpayers dry on poorly planned ventures.
Saturday, February 14 Report this
Chris_R
No need for the port to spend $50k on a study. If they must, put a RFP out there and see what response there is. I would guess that no private entity will find it even remotely viable.
Saturday, February 14 Report this
northbeachcomm
Thank YOU for this article; good conversation!
The Port of Olympia discussion of another "study" will be the THIRD STUDY!
So the total for the past 2 years, will be $150,000 in Port of Olympia ferry service (we had Port "ferry studies"
long before these studies, in the past.
That is a lot of money, that money could be used in Yelm for a children's playground at a park!
But .........Port President Vasavada wants another study of "consumer demand" for a 20 person
ferry that will be owned and operated by an outside contractor/owner. Will there be enough consumers that
will take this ferry? Let the contractor/owner of the ferry service make the decision
whether to start a ferry service or not! I agree with the comment before:
"No need for the port to spend $50k on a ferry consumer demand study. If they must, put a RFP out there and see what response there is. I would guess that no private entity will find the Olympia ferry service, even remotely viable. "
Saturday, February 14 Report this
JnNwmn
There is already great airport service available. It is called InterCity Transit. And it costs $5 dollars.
Saturday, February 14 Report this
Porter
I'll do the study for $49k.
Saturday, February 14 Report this
johnvaneenwyk
It’s a no go. Ferry service in other parts of the country that focus on “economic” (re: tourism) benefits have failed. The ferry from Rochester, NY to Toronto failed after 6 months. It’s a fantasy that doesn’t work out in actuality.
Saturday, February 14 Report this
36098501
Save the money. It isn't feasible, or cost effective.
The actual solutions that can be implemented tomorrow involve dedicated bus lanes on I5.
What would also help is more housing built locally, so people don't have to commute in to the City. An emphasis on attracting businesses here to build a more resilient community is vital so people stay can stay within their own community now, and in the future. Right now, we seem to be doing the opposite. Taxes going up. Affordability going down.
Intercity Transit is a critical component to local transportation, but it seems headed in too many directions at the moment with no clear objective to help reduce transit congestion. They are loaded with cash, but to an outsider, the spending is chasing too many disjointed objectives.
See my comments on this article.
https://www.thejoltnews.com/stories/intercity-transit-authority-approves-purchase-of-vehicles-for-village-van-service,28151
The Port is also an important part of the Community. It just isn't very good at business decisions or running businesses. Because there is considerable taxpayer money available to subsidize losses, the businesses don't get run well. The Port has lost money at the gas dock since the day it was built. And, they typically charge 20% less than the other marinas in Puget Sound. Just a single, very small example. Similar story with the boat yard, and that also pushed West Bay Marina out of the business.
The Boards running these things in Olympia tend not to have professional business experience, or subject matter expertise. They come to these roles as government employees who don't have to consider the constraints a typical business would have to in order to survive. The nature of this approach is to continually expand rather than optimize. That is a weakness Olympia needs to spend more effort to remedy. There is little diversity of thought, perspective or frankly much public debate considered in these complex issues. Public push surveys don't count, and neither do choreographed town halls. 7-0 votes, and large consent calendars are the norm so time can be spent on things that don't relate to effectively managing resources, or running the town.
LOTT is another example. I've never seen a nicer office. Children's Museum, another great thing for the community, but spends an unbelievable amount of money to still need to charge $20 a person while also receiving local government subsidies annually to manage their budget - and another $35mm to expand it.
These things are critically important to the Community, but there is a balance between making life here affordable and creating future taxpayer liabilities.
Saturday, February 14 Report this
jimlazar
The legislature has studied passenger-only ferries many times, including when I worked for the Senate. They only make sense for high-density routes where there is a short water distance that substitutes for a long driving distance, like Bremerton-Seattle, or where a bridge is not feasible, like Vashon.
We currently have 20 buses per day between Olympia and Seatac, with a connection in Lakewood. While slower than driving, they are more relaxing and don't take any longer than it would take the electric ferry and connecting bus service at each end. And they are much cheaper. I use them regularly.
In addition, we have a private operator, Premier, which provides luxury door-to-door shuttle service to Seatac, with baggage handling, as many as 30 times per day. I use them sometimes. This service is faster, more flexible (they wait for your flight when it's running late!) and cheaper than any ferry service would be.
If a private operator wants to offer this service, the Port should be willing and able to provide a location for the operator to build a terminal facility. That is a proper role of a Port. The Port should not be investing OUR money in a study of a service that a private operator can study on their own. The Port should not be investing OUR money in a vessel or staffing.
Time to end this fantasy and get to work figuring out how to operate the Port of Olympia without a massive tax subsidy. In the current budget, the property tax subsidy is equal to more than one-third of the projected operating revenue. With a half-billion dollars worth of publicly-owned real estate, the Port ought to be able to operate without a subsidy.
The Port loses money every year on the marine terminal. They lose money most years on the marina and airport. They make it all up with our property taxes.
Stay focused on finding quality tenants for the Port real estate who do things that benefit the community without trashing the natural environment and can operating without continuing subsidies.
Saturday, February 14 Report this
GFelsen
A very silly idea from clearly unserious people.
The Port of Olympia Board has proven to be shamelessly consist in producing absolutely unsound, unwanted proposals that will only increase the financial losses this organization racks up year after year. I believe the Port is too small and too remote to ever be a viable engine of “economic development”.
Saturday, February 14 Report this
JW
That's another $50,000 of OUR money they are frittering away on a study. The Port disgusts me.
Sunday, February 15 Report this
DRamsey2
I suggest that the people who keep bring up this ferry idea find other ways to satisfy their urges for boat ownership. Dreaming is free, so lets dream about boats for few minutes. Ferry boats are fun! Ferries are romantic! There are thousands of reasons that travel on the water intrigues many of Puget Sound dwellers and draws us in for closer look. Wind in the sails, rolling decks beneath the feet, salt spray splashing our faces. Practicality takes back seat to these excursions of the mind. Spending thousands and thousands of dollars in tax payer money to let a few employees to dream at work is not practical. I encourage these dreamers to take a walk down Percival landing and scrutinize the boats tied up in the marinas. Count the number of these boats that are perpetually tied up, many in a state of perpetual neglect, and you will see how few people are actually able to find the time and money to make their dreams a reality. Seriously, the number of people who are going to haul their luggage onto a small ferry on a windy day to get to the airport for a flight is ridiculously small and a series of expensive studies are not needed to see that reality! City of Olympia, there are already hundreds of ways to enjoy life on the water for those who love the sea without raising our taxes for to fund these grifters with their pipe dream.
Sunday, February 15 Report this
Boatyarddog
OMG C
VASAVADA Give it Up! Your wasting Valuable Assets on A BAD Idea. ITS been reviewed numerous times. A WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY.
Sunday, February 15 Report this
ScottWall
As fun as it is to imagine a ferry service to northern locations of Puget Sound it shouldn't take a study, or even much deep thought, to come to the realization that unless there are throngs of riders willing to pay multiple times more to reach their destination, a ferry service of this type is highly unlikely to be feasible.
The ever-desperate Port of Olympia Commission would be much better served by doing a study on all of the ill-conceived and financially disastrous "investments" it has made on behalf of Thurston County taxpayers over the past 30-40 years.
Monday, February 16 Report this
BillSpencer
This is a cool idea, and if it can make money then we should let it happen. Not really sure if it will make money, sadly. If we really want to solve our transportation issues, we need to start with a bus that goes to Tacoma, SeaTac, and Seattle (and we need to build HOV lanes, over the Nisqually delta so those buses aren't stuck in traffic).
Monday, February 16 Report this
JoanieNovember
What a bunch of Negative Nellies.
Do you realize how many people live in Thurston County but can’t stand driving north? Never taking advantage of sports, arts, and other cultural opportunities up there?
In a perfect world, there would be a simple way to get from the freakin CAPITAL CITY to the freakin LARGEST CITY quickly and easily, i.e., light rail the entire way. And its criminal that there isn’t.
I believe there are plenty of folks who would drive to the Port to catch a walk-on ferry to Des Moines. There’s already bus service from there to SeaTac. Hopefully the private company that took this on would extend the service all the way to downtown Seattle. (And whoever said the ferry can’t make the trip on one charge is incorrect.)
Wouldn’t that be great? You could actually go to a Mariners game. Or a concert. Or a million other things.
Puget Sound used to be absolutely packed with a mosquito fleet. They were literally all over. It was nuts. You could even get from one side of Hood Canal to the other.
So it’s not so much as looking at something new but looking at bringing something back that was a great idea.
Tuesday, February 17 Report this
Somney
Money would be better spent on building a Bus Rapid Transit connection to Du Pont so that people could connect to the Sounder when that expansion comes. It's not anytime super soon, but neither is this imaginary fairy, errr ummm ferry.
Tuesday, February 17 Report this
KinesthesiaAmnesia
I want to correct or clarify something brought up in the comments, "Puget Sound used to be absolutely packed with a mosquito fleet."
Yes, but the Mosquito Fleet was not publicly owned or financed. Or even one fleet. The old "fleet" was a motley assortment of boats, everything from steamers to canoes, owned by private sailors and shipping companies from all over the world. The Mosquito Fleet took it's rough shape in order to profit off freight and US mail contracts - not so much around ferrying passengers. The boats were not known for being comfortable, on-time or safe. Boats arrived off schedule or not at all. People fell off and drowned. The fleet's commercial viability died out after area car roads improved and mail got carried by planes.
Mosquito fleet operators roughly split Puget Sound into North Sound and South Sound, with Tacoma or Steilacoom at the divide. Mosquito fleet boats rarely made long trips out of South Sound into Seattle, and Olympia trips often ended at Steilacoom. That's why they were Mosquito - the boats buzzed and swarmed along these teeny tiny routes. Olympia to Shelton was a popular daily route. The Hood Canal-Seattle route mentioned in the comments was only scheduled to go to from Seattle to the Canal once a week on Tuesdays, then its return trip to Seattle was on the next day.
In the last years of the Mosquito Fleet they used new steamers that could travel the entire length of the Sound and handle passengers comfortably. I think that's the Mosquito Fleet that history has remembered in amber instead of the ragtag, industrial fleet we mostly had.
I love public transportation, also boat travel, more than anyone really should. But when it comes to Mosquito Fleet I think people have a romantic, but historically inaccurate, idea of a uniform fleet of public foot ferries ready to take passengers almost anywhere in the Sound at almost anytime. When the Mosquito Fleet was more like an informal network of private tugboats (like our beloved Sandman!) slowly hauling logs and letters.
We can take public transportation into the future without the Port or copying old, private boat systems. Also why is the Port of Olympia focused on travel to SeaTac airport but not to Portland airport, or Puget Sound job centers?Why are we even having this red herring of a conversation today about private foot ferries when most of the Puget Sound area has good public bus systems and is working on light rail? Build public light rail up and down the i5 corridor! It should have been finished years ago!
Tuesday, February 17 Report this
KarenM
This comment section has included some very useful information. I wish the conversation at the Port meeting could include this kind of discussion. If you have not already sent your comments to the Port Commissioners please do so.
They need to hear what the public thinks of this idea. I think it is folly and poor use of public tax dollars and have communicated that to the Commission.
Tuesday, February 17 Report this
SecondOtter
Well, if the ferry is similar to the boat pictured, it appears to be flying, like a hovercraft. If the water is anything close to being 'rough', I won't be on it. I got seasick watching "Titanic".
Monday, February 23 Report this