Waterborne Transit Policy Study
The Puget Sound Region has a long history of waterborne transportation, with waterways such as the Puget Sound and Lake Washington being the first major transportation routes in the area. In the early days of King County, hundreds of steamships, collectively known as the Mosquito Fleet, plied the waters transporting people, lumber, mail, and everything else. However, improvements in land-based transportation in the 1930s, including both highways and interurban rail transit, led to the rapid decline and termination of the Mosquito Fleet.
Seventy years later, King County is looking at whether or not waterborne transit has the potential to augment the existing infrastructure to help provide reliable and sustainable mobility for King County residents and visitors. The purpose of this study is to provide policy makers with information to help make informed decisions about potential county investments and potential participation in passenger ferry service.
Study documents
Some or all of the documents below are PDF files, which can be viewed or downloaded using Adobe’s free Acrobat Reader software. For more information on getting or using Acrobat, please visit the King County Acrobat help page.
- Summary Report (August 2005) (PDF, 2.1MB)
- Task 2: Regional and Industry Experience (August 2005) (PDF, 685KB)
- Task 3: Operating, Financing, and Partnership Options (August 2005) (PDF, 486KB)
- Task 4: Sample Routes (August 2005) (PDF, 1.6MB)
- Task 5: Relative Costs and Effectiveness (August 2005) (PDF, 810KB)
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Last update: November 19, 2007