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The State of Washington runs the largest fleet of passenger and Auto Ferries in the United States and the third largest in the World . The system, known as Washington State Ferries, serves communities on Puget Sound and in the San Juan Islands . The ferry system is operated by the Washington State Department Of Transportation . The ferry system has its origins in the ") and the Kitsap County Transportation Company . A Strike in 1935 forced the KCTC to close, leaving only the Black Ball Line. ]] Toward the end of the 1940s the Black Ball Line wanted to increase its fares, to compensate for increased wage demands from the ferry workers' Union s, but the state refused to allow this, and so the Black Ball Line shut down. In 1951 , the state bought substantially all of Black Ball's ferry assets for $5 million. The state intended to run ferry service only until cross-sound bridges could be built, but these were never approved, and the Washington Department of Transportation runs the system to this day. FLEET in Rich Passage heading to Bremerton, WA.]] As of late 2005 , there are 28 Ferries on Puget Sound and one on the Columbia River. The largest vessels in this fleet carry up to 2500 passengers and 212 vehicles. They are painted in a distinctive white and green trim paint scheme, and feature double-ended open vehicle decks and bridges at each end so that they don't need to turn around. ROUTES Automobile '' with Orcas Island in the background.]]
Passenger-only Vashon Island to Seattle is the only current (as of October 2005 ) passenger-only service operated by Washington State Ferries. Services operated by private enterprise are often proposed, and occasionally run on an experimental basis. From 1993 to the early 2000s a passenger-only service ran from Bremerton to Seattle. It was shut down because of limited profitability and because of continued lawsuits of residents living on the waterway used by the ferry to prevent the high-speed ferries built for the run from running at their full speed. The slower speed made the crossing time similar or equal to the auto ferry operating on the same route, making the passenger-only service redundant. OTHER FERRIES IN WASHINGTON See Also: Ferries in Washington State Publicly operated
Private Many private ferries exist to serve residents of islands throughout Puget Sound and beyond into the Juan De Fuca Strait . For example:
Passenger-only From 2004 to April 2007, a private company, the Kitsap Ferry Co., provided passenger-only ferry service between Bremerton and Seattle, during weekday commute times. The service was canceled due to high costs and lack of support from Kitsap Transit , whose district voters failed to pass a sales tax increase for the foot ferry. The most recent run, between Kingston and Seattle, called Aqua Express, shut down after two years of non-profitable service. West Seattle to the Seattle central business district and Bremerton to Seattle have been other passenger-only routes attempted by private enterprise. '']] SUBCULTURE As the largest fleet in operation in the United States , the Washington state system is substantial enough to have generated significant political issues, labor activism, and even its own minor subculture. SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
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