County Executive Constantine talks Water Taxi (etc.) at Chamber

(WSB photo by Christopher Boffoli)
A month and a half after taking office as King County Executive, Dow Constantine keynoted today’s annual lunch meeting of his hometown Chamber of Commerce. Among many topics in his 14-minute speech, Constantine assured the crowd at Salty’s on Alki that the county is committed to the West Seattle and Vashon runs of the King County Water Taxi. Within view of Salty’s, work is under way on dock upgrades for the Water Taxi to use at Seacrest when the new season starts in April; but that’s still a longterm temporary dock, and Constantine says they’re still working to figure out the permanent location. We’ll have video up soon from his speech, in case you missed it, as well as a few more highlights in text. ADDED 3:51 PM: The County Executive’s big theme was that he’s midway through his first 100 days. When he gets to the end of those first 100 days, he’ll roll out his blueprint for his vision of a more efficient, more responsive county government. He says he’s also committed to making sure that in these budget-crunched times, Metro gets the biggest bang for its buck. ADDED 5:02 PM: Video of the Constantine speech in its entirety:

Kara January 13, 2010 (4:51 pm)

I can’t wait for an all year long run of the West Seattle Water Taxi it will definitely be part of my commute to work and home and my friends and I won’t have to struggle to find parking downtown.

sillygoose January 14, 2010 (8:38 am)

Did I just read this correctly, a West Seattle Vashon Run!!! So so excited about this I love the water Taxi and think it is an awesome idea. Would it go from Vashon directly to down town or stop in West Seattle first? This has potential for those of us that work down town to save a substantial amount of money by not using the Ferry!!

WSB January 14, 2010 (8:52 am)

Sillyg, I’m checking to see if there’s a typo, because no, it’s the West Seattle-downtown and Vashon-downtown runs to which he refers … tr

Kara January 14, 2010 (5:51 pm)

Its a passenger only Vashon-Downtown run. It goes from downtown Seattle to the passenger only dock on Vashon (its the dock to the right of the two main ferry docks) then from Vashon to Downtown. If you want to go from West Seattle to Vashon you take Fauntleroy.

June January 28, 2010 (7:51 am)

Why don’t we try to get the new Orca system fixed, before we worry about the water taxi! I see frustration with the new ORCA card system daily. The people at Orca/Sound Transit/Metro need to get on the same page with one another. Does anyone know anything here? I see many elderly,disabled people sent helter skelter from the transit tunnel to Jackson on a regular basis.Then they have to wait in line for up to an additional hour for assistance. I see riders being harrassed over the confusion on the new system. Where’s the colaboration and customer service here? It’s been quite a detressing month in regards to transit in Seattle.

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