PORT TOWNSEND – An interim passenger ferry from Port Townsend to Keystone on Whidbey Island begins its first full day today.
The 350-seat MV Snohomish takes off from the modified car ferry landing south of downtown Port Townsend at 6:30 a.m. today.
The ferry will leave Port Townsend daily at 6:30 a.m., 8 a.m., 9:30 a.m., 11:15 a.m., 12:45 p.m., 2:15 p.m., 3:45 p.m., 5:15 p.m., 6:45 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.
It will leave Keystone at 7:15 a.m., 8:45 a.m., 10:15 a.m., noon, 1:30 p.m., 3 p.m., 4:30 p.m., 6 p.m., 7:70 p.m. and 9:15 p.m.
The schedule will be readjusted to better match the Island Transit schedule, a Washington State Ferries spokeswoman said.
“It will probably change by 10 or 15 minutes is all,” Susan Harris-Huether, customer information officer, said Sunday.
Free parking will be available in what had been holding lanes for the car ferry idled last week.
The fourth and only Steel Electric-class vehicle ferry, MV Klickitat, was abruptly pulled from service by the state transportation secretary last Tuesday night after hull corrosion was found in other Steel Electrics already idled.