by Tom Banse, Washington State Standard
February 23, 2026
Budget writers in the Washington Legislature on Monday declared their intent to eventually buy more hybrid electric ferries to modernize the state ferry fleet.
But newly unveiled House and Senate transportation spending proposals left at the dock a $1 billion borrowing request from the governor to pay the tab, raising doubts about when and how a new shipyard order might happen. The budget plans would also further pause the conversion of existing diesel ferries to electric power.
Meanwhile, proposals are floating around Olympia that would involve the state leasing ferryboats and clearing the way for more locally supported, passenger-only service.
Washington State Ferries urgently needs more vessels — and more reliable vessels. The average age of the fleet is 35 years old. Five of the state’s iconic green-and-white car ferries are well over 50 years old. The ferry system currently doesn’t have a backup ferry available to fill in during the inevitable breakdowns.
On the eve of this year’s legislative session, Democratic Gov. Bob Ferguson proposed borrowing against future gas tax receipts to buy three additional hybrid electric ferries. These would have the same design as an initial order for three plug-in ferries placed last year with a Florida shipyard. Each new ferry has a capacity for 160 cars and 1,500 passengers.
The Legislature’s powerful Transportation Committee chairmen agree with the goal, but not the procurement means or methods for those additional new ferries.
“It’s too soon,” said House Transportation Committee Chair Jake Fey, D-Tacoma. “We haven’t even gotten ferry number one in yet.”
Fey’s Senate counterparts sounded the same notes in bipartisan fashion when the upper chamber unveiled its mid-cycle budget tweaks and additions.
“We want to take more time on figuring out those next steps,” said Senate Transportation Committee Chair Marko Liias, D-Edmonds. “We need to look at other modalities like leasing and other ways that we could acquire them as well.”
“As we write our full budget next year, I think we’ll have a clearer picture on how we move forward with [new] vessel four and beyond,” Liias continued.
“We need more ferries. We need to get them here as quickly as we can without breaking the bank,” added Sen. Curtis King, R-Yakima, the ranking Republican on the committee.State Sen. Curtis King, in foreground, and Sen. Marko Liias discussed the Washington Senate’s bipartisan 2026 ferry and highway spending priorities with reporters in Olympia on Monday. (Photo by Bill Lucia/Washington State Standard)
Fey noted that policymakers have to juggle ferry riders’ needs with other big-ticket items. The transportation budget writers in both chambers on Monday emphasized major spending increases on highway safety, maintenance and bridge preservation.
There’s also a looming, unfunded multibillion-dollar settlement being negotiated with Washington tribes to reset the pace of fixing outmoded road culverts that block fish migration. And last, but not least, the state is fronting the high cost of repairing flood damage from last December’s atmospheric rivers while it waits to hear how much money the federal government will reimburse.
The governor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Once each chamber passes its spending blueprint, the budget writers negotiate behind closed doors to reconcile the differences. The transportation budgets are separate from the operating budget. Democrats in the House and Senate released operating budget proposals over the weekend.
The 2026 legislative session is scheduled to wrap up in less than three weeks.
About those new ferries
Florida-based Eastern Shipbuilding Group plans to begin cutting steel and laying the keel later this summer for the first of the three ferries already ordered, according to Washington State Ferries. Those new ferries are scheduled for delivery between 2030 and 2032.
The finalized design drawings depict 460-foot boats that resemble a slightly elongated version of the diesel-powered Olympic class ferries built in Seattle between 2014 and 2018. However, the new design has just one passenger deck stacked on top of the two auto decks.
Racks of water-cooled rechargeable batteries will allow each ferry to sail fully on electric power most of the time. The engine room will also feature twin diesel generators as a backup source of propulsion. Washington State Ferries has ordered three of these new 160-car hybrid electric ferries from a Florida shipyard. The Legislature is now debating whether and how to pay for additional ones. (Image courtesy of Washington State Department of Transportation)
Neither the House nor Senate included any money through at least 2031 to convert existing diesel ferries to plug-in hybrid propulsion.
Ferry electrification conversions were a signature policy of former Gov. Jay Inslee. But the first conversion involving the 202-car ferry Wenatchee went way over budget and took longer than expected in 2024-25. The strained ferry system can ill afford to take workhorse vessels out of service for a year or more – at least, not until its newly-ordered ferries arrive.
What to do in the meantime?
The long timelines to build new ferries raise the unsettling prospect of still more years of disruption from breakdowns of aging boats. This has created an opening for outsiders to pitch near-term alternatives to boost service.
A Seattle shipyard named Stabbert Maritime has a pending proposal with the ferry system to refurbish and reactivate two retired state ferries, the 144-car Hyak and the 87-car Klahowya. Meanwhile, a hydrogen ferry startup named Switch Maritime is proposing to build a new 80-car zero-emission ferry and lease it to the state for use in the San Juan Islands.
The state Senate cracked the door to leasing by agreeing to Switch Maritime’s request to hire a consultant to do an independent assessment of the costs and benefits of leased hydrogen-powered ferries.
“The lease structure provides a very flexible and capital-efficient way to procure a new vessel, which is of great importance when you’re at a point where budgets are very tight and vessels are quite expensive,” Switch Maritime Director of Commercial and Government Affairs Seamus Nolan told senators during a work session last week.
One other budget highlight Liias and Fey mentioned Monday was $2 million that they both proposed to set up a specialized team of mechanics to respond to ferry breakdowns. A dedicated team could reduce the need to pull personnel from their regular jobs, which can delay scheduled maintenance cycles and extend ferry lay-ups.
More foot ferries pitched
One state representative from ferry-dependent Kitsap County is doggedly pressing his colleagues to expand locally-operated foot ferries to give cross-Sound commuters more reliable service sooner and at lower cost to taxpayers.
State Rep. Greg Nance, D-Bainbridge Island, dubbed his proposal the Mosquito Fleet Act in homage to the network of private steamboats that ferried people and goods around Puget Sound a century ago.
Nance’s measure would allow any local government, port district, transit agency or tribe bordering Puget Sound or Grays Harbor to launch passenger-only ferry service. For now, new routes would have to be subsidized by a local taxing district with voter approval. Nance’s fellow legislators stripped out the state funding for startup grants from his original proposal.
“We need more capacity,” Nance said in an interview. “We need an intermediate strategy to get to 2030” when the first of the new hybrid electric car ferries on order is scheduled for delivery.
Nance said he would like the new generation Mosquito Fleet to be “a sandbox for experimentation.” The Senate Transportation Committee will take public testimony on this aspect of ferry service on Friday.
Washington State Standard is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Washington State Standard maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Bill Lucia for questions: [email protected].