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Week of Oct. 2, 2006
Water taxi finishes up record year
 The Elliott Bay Water Taxi wrapped up its ninth sailing season this past weekend, marking the completion of its most successful run yet.
This season ran from May 1 to Sept. 30, and saw an increase of approximately nine percent over the same period last year. Although the numbers aren’t all in yet, Metro is projecting overall ridership for the 2006 season at more than 118,000 passengers - the highest summer ridership in water taxi history.
King County Metro Transit debuted the water taxi in 1997 with the 82-passenger “Admiral Pete.” In 2004, the service expanded with the introduction of the 150-passenger “Sightseer.” For the past three seasons, the waterborne service has been teamed with a land shuttle – Metro Route 773 – that connects the dock at Seacrest Marina Park to Alki, the Admiral District, and the West Seattle Junction.
Water taxi riders are a mix of tourists and West Seattle commuters who find the 12-minute trip across the bay a unique way to see the sights and a peaceful way to get to work.
“I think the great weather this summer may have initially attracted more people to this service, and has been one reason we had additional regular riders during the season,” said Mike Beck, Metro’s project manager for the water taxi. “But, we saw growth in both tourism and commuters.”
The water taxi is gaining a reputation as a good public transportation option especially when surface streets are clogged. In late June, there was a serious accident that closed the West Seattle Bridge during the morning commute. The water taxi carried more than 1,600 commuters to downtown Seattle during the eight-hour closure of the bridge.
Beck said after that particular day, there was a significant increase in commuter ridership on the Sightseer. “After people tried it once, they really liked it as an alternative way to commute,” he says.
The regular commuters are a tight-knit bunch. They are on a first-name basis with the crew, share treats, and celebrate birthdays. On the final weekday of service last Friday, one group of friends from West Seattle spent the morning sailing back and forth just for fun.
Since its inception, the water taxi has delivered more than 770,000 trips between West Seattle and the downtown waterfront. Over the years, Metro has worked on making the service more efficient and cost-effective. Beck said that has been accomplished by adjusting fares, sailing times, and the schedule for both the water taxi and the land shuttle.
King County Metro Transit and other transit and public safety agencies will be given new tools to increase their readiness to respond to major security incidents thanks to two grants totaling more than $600,000 awarded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The first Homeland Security grant will fund a variety of prevention and response activities. In addition supporting a new specially trained multi-jurisdictional Rapid Deployment Force made up of personnel from the King County Sheriff’s Office, Seattle Police Department, and Washington State Patrol, the $350,000 grant will help pay for enhanced communications equipment and special incident command and response vehicles. The funding will also help strengthen transit-related information sharing and collaboration between the agencies and team members. A second grant, amounting to $281,000, will be used to help fund initial installation of a state-of-the-art hazardous material detection and response system in the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel. The system will provide Metro. SPD, and the Seattle Fire Department with the ability to identify various types of potentially hazardous materials and allow them to more effectively respond to such an incident.
The annual Issaquah Salmon Days Festival will cause reroutes for transit service this Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 7 and 8. But, there is a combination of public and private shuttles to help people navigate through town. Metro routes 209 and 271, plus Sound Transit 554, will not travel through downtown Issaquah during the festival. Metro will provide a shuttle van marked as “Route 271” between the Issaquah Park-and-Ride on State Route 900 to Front Street in Issaquah. See Metro Online for details. Festival organizers are also providing private shuttles between that park-and-ride and the Issaquah Highlands Park-and-Ride north of Interstate 90. Metro and Sound Transit passes and transfers will not be accepted on the privately operated Salmon Days Shuttles. And for those of you going to Salmon Days, watch for the Metro entry in Saturday’s parade. |
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It’s shaping up as a banner year for Russ Johnson from the King County Department of Transportation’s Fleet Administration Division. Not only was he elected secretary of the western chapter of the National Property Management Association (NPMA), but he also was designated one of the chapter’s “Outstanding Members” in August. A 22-year King County employee, Johnson is the supervisor of surplus property for Fleet, where he manages the highly successful semi-annual vehicle and equipment auctions. Johnson has been an NPMA member since 1987, and has held each office in the association at the chapter level.
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