PORT TOWNSEND – Riding the 80-year-old ferries between Port Townsend and Keystone is like living in a third-world country, where risks are present but accepted, says Kirsten Harma.
She commutes from Port Townsend to her job on Whidbey Island every day.
“I just figure there are a couple of lifeboats,” Harma says.
She says a group of regular ferry riders sometimes discuss the safety of the four Steel Electric-class ferries used on the Port Townsend-Keystone route when there are delays, or when the ferries are shuffled around because of issues with one.
But the utmost worry is not over the safety of the ferries.
“My main concern is that Washington State Ferries won’t continue to support the [Port Townsend-Keystone] route,” Harma says.
Jason Planque of Freeland on Whidbey Island regularly rides the ferry to Port Townsend.
He says ferry issues amount to a startling equation:
“This is one of the longest runs in the [Puget] Sound, and it’s one of the most treacherous runs, and they’re the oldest ferries,” Planque says.
“This is just kind of pitiful, the condition [of the ferries] we got here compared to everybody else.”
But he adds:
“It’s just part of life. That’s what you get for living on an island, I guess.”
