Ferry system back on track after diesel spill in Kingston

EDMONDS -- State ferry services were back on-line Labor Day afternoon after a bumpy start to one of the busiest travel days of the year.

The Kingston-Edmonds ferry run shut down for several hours Monday morning, threatening to send the whole system in a tailspin.

Transportation officials warned of huge delays across the system because of the route’s cancellations.

Both boats on the Kingston-Edmonds route were back up and running around noontime, but the hiccup is just the latest in a long line of time-consuming route cancellations.

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Daniel Brandt planned on working this Labor Day but his meeting on the Kitsap Peninsula had to be cancelled when the Edmonds-Kingston route shut down.

“Went to catch a ferry this morning to go to work and have a meeting with 7 or 8 employees,” said Brandt.



A diesel spill on one of the boats in Kingston forced the route to be cancelled for hours.

Only 1 of 2 boats was back in service by late Monday morning, but by then the vehicle holding area in Edmonds had already filled up with holiday travelers.

“We were ideally going to make the 11,” said Chris Slem. “We missed that so we’ll have been here waiting in line for over an hour.”

“This is the first time it’s ever happened to me,” said Tracy Rogers who missed one of the Kingston runs. “We just moved here 3 weeks ago.”

Rogers took the long drive around the Puget Sound just to get to Edmonds. She’s learning to be flexible when ferries go out of service, but believes it happens more often than it should.

“Definitely check the website before you go,” said Rogers. “Check for bulletins to see if the ferry is running or not.”

The ferry system is expecting heavy traffic Monday night as people start heading home from their Labor Day weekend.