West Seattle Water Taxi schedule: One tweak; one commitment

(WSB file photo of the West Seattle Water Taxi, May 2011)
There’s scheduling news from today’s meeting of the King County Ferry District Board – county councilmembers wearing their marine hats, overseeing West Seattle and Vashon Water Taxi operations. First, one small tweak that local families say will make a big difference; second, a big-picture commitment that should be a relief to local professional sports fans. Details on both, ahead:

First, the “small tweak” comes with some backstory.

Last fall, a local mom named Julie cc’d us on an e-mail campaign she and dozens of other local families had launched, to ask that the Water Taxi’s mid-afternoon sailing stay at 3:45 pm in the spring/summer, the same time that afternoon sailings start in the fall/winter. The families have kids who go to school downtown and get out around 3; they can make it to Pier 50 for the 3:45 run, but the 3:30 run is cutting it close. Once Julie found out there was no operational reason for the change between seasons – that it was “random” – she requested that it stay the same. And so, the Ferry Board approved the tweak today, agreeing on the value of keeping “a consistent schedule,” as West Seattle’s County Councilmember Joe McDermott – who chairs the Ferry District Board – put it when we contacted him to confirm this.

He added in his reply that the board also today “adopted a formal policy as we said we would late last year regarding game-day service. The policy states: ‘It shall be the policy of the King County Ferry District to extend its Sunday through Thursday summer schedule of service for the West Seattle water taxi service to accommodate game day end times for professional sporting events at Safeco Field and CenturyLink Stadium with game end times later than the regular schedule of service.” While the Water Taxi generally has made those runs during the spring/summer season, it hasn’t previously been a formal policy – now it is. (Read the official document here.)

(P.S. Before you ask – yes, we asked; way too soon to say whether that policy will be expanded to include the expected future basketball arena.)

SS5 January 23, 2013 (7:24 am)

JOW MCDERMOTT/KING COUNTY FERRY DISTRICT-

WHEN ARE WE GOING TO START MANAGING THE LONG TERM (MORE THAN 2 HOURS) PARKING SITUATION AROUND THE WATER TAXI DOCK???
WHY IS SO MUCH OF DON ARMENI BOAT/TRAILER PARKING ALLOWD TO SET VACANT?

THE PROBLEM IS GETTING WORSE BY THE DAY. GOD FORBID I SHOULD WANT TO STOP FOR A BITE AT MARINATION MAKAI…OR GO VISIT A FRIEND THAT LIVES IN A CONDO IN THAT AREA !!!

dq January 23, 2013 (7:59 am)

If only Metro was that focused on customer service…

JWT January 24, 2013 (8:56 am)

They should also have a policy to update their website to reflect upcoming dates where extended service for professional sporting events will be offered. It’s not all that hard to ask a staff person to grab a couple of schedules and do that once a week. It would take 10 minutes to do, but would help greatly. There have been times where I have gone to the site to check if a particular sporting event will be covered, and there were still two week old announcements for previous sporting events on their website. It’s really not too much to ask that the website be refreshed once a week to reflect that week’s events. I mean the expensive part is actually operating the service itself, if you don’t follow through and notify the public, you aren’t going to find people making as much use of it as you would otherwise.

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