King County Water Taxi celebrates record May ridership

June 15, 2009 at 3:38 pm | In King County Water Taxi, Transportation, West Seattle news | 7 Comments

Just announced by King County Council Chair Dow Constantine’s office – 20 percent more than last May — read on for the official news release:

The King County Water Taxi carried 31,557 riders last month, setting a record for May ridership on the West Seattle-to-downtown passenger ferry.

This represents a 20 percent increase over last May’s ridership of 26,137 passengers. Ridership in May 2007 was 22,259 passengers.

“The King County Water Taxi has continued its strong trend of increased ridership as we approach the transition to year-round service next year,” said King County Council Chair Dow Constantine, who also serves as chair of the King County Ferry District Board. “The Water Taxi is a great transportation choice for commuters that takes cars off the road and gets riders out of traffic. Our continuing increases in ridership on the West Seattle route are a good indicator for future success as the King County Ferry District establishes its next demonstration routes.”

The Water Taxi also saw a 46-percent increase in cash fare revenue during May, collecting $44,518 during the month, as compared to $30,285 last year—an increase of 47 percent.

7 Comments

  1. Does anybody know what the break-even revenue would be? I assume they’re nowhere close to making money on it – that sure would be nice!
    [Yes, I could find the answer somewhere, but I'm too lazy too busy at work to look it up.]

    Comment by Dave — June 15, 09 4:30 pm #

  2. Fares covered about 39 percent of the operating cost of the West Seattle/Downtown Seattle route in 2008. (Source: King County Ferry District FAQ, http://www.kingcountyferries.org)

    Comment by Vanessa — June 15, 09 5:40 pm #

  3. I was someone who created an increase! :)

    Comment by AD — June 15, 09 7:02 pm #

  4. Dave, I believe that Metro’s buses average about 21% farebox revenue. All transit is subsidized because we don’t have the space to deal with everyone driving a car. Roads are also heavily subsidized by our tax dollar.

    Think of the Water Taxi as a bus on the water. A really fun, relaxing, great way to travel, bus on the water.

    Comment by westside — June 15, 09 11:06 pm #

  5. I rode the water taxi last year as a commuter and there weren’t many of us. If it wasn’t for tourists the ridership would be very low.

    Comment by John — June 16, 09 8:27 am #

  6. i took it yesterday into downtown so i could bike up to magnuson park and ended up missing the last one which was at 6:50. it is probably cost prohibitive but i wish they had one more later ferry so I could come downtown for dinner or a movie in the evening. i get why this is not really a possibility now but maybe in the future is ridership can continue to climb…

    Comment by lina — June 16, 09 10:21 am #

  7. lina, there are later routes on Friday nights…and on other weeknights that the Mariners have night games. ;-)

    Comment by alki_2008 — June 17, 09 4:13 pm #

Sorry, after 3 weeks of commentlessness, comment time is over.

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