Private-Ferry Backers Plan Studies to Show Need

Original article
From the Industry Wrapups column

The Puget Sound Private Ferry Coalition is seeking federal and state funding for a pair of studies to help support the development of private-sector ferry systems in Puget Sound.

Bruce Agnew, director of Discovery Institute’s Cascadia Project and a coalition founder, said one of the studies will look at how private ferries could be run and coordinated, as well as the demographics of potential users in the Puget Sound area. A second study will look into the economics of the area’s maritime industry, including ship designers, builders and outfitters that might build and support the ferries.

Agnew expects the two studies will together cost from $250,000 to $450,000, with financing about 75 percent from federal funds and 25 percent from state funds. Some of the current work is being supported by about $50,000 from a $9.35 million grant the Discovery Institute recently received from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

“We need to take a look at who’s living where around the sound (and) what their work schedules are,” Agnew said, “How could an intense passenger-only ferry serve the needs of the workplace?”

Information from the study may help interest investors in developing private-sector ferry systems. The state Department of Transportation is pulling away from operating passenger-only ferries, at a time when increasing development around Puget Sound, as well as growing auto-traffic congestion, is creating a demand for more transportation alternatives.

Agnew said the proposed study will complement several more localized studies being done in the Tacoma area and elsewhere around Puget Sound.

“What we’re attempting to do is overlay that with an overall analysis,” he said.