A trip on a Washington state ferry will get more expensive this fall.

The Washington State Transportation Commission recently approved fare hikes of 3% on Oct. 1 and another 3% on May 1, 2026. It’s also raising the summer season surcharge to 35% on all routes next year and, on a trial basis, extending the life of multi-ride passes to 120 days starting next May. Those passes now expire after 90 days.

“It is never a fun job to raise rates,” says Commissioner Debbie Young. The final product, she says, is the best they could devise “to keep the impact minimized on the regular rider who feels it most.” Also, commissioners acted to require operators of public and private bus services, as well as vanpool and public rideshare services, to pay tolls on the State Route 520 floating bridge and the Tacoma Narrows Bridge starting Oct. 1.

Commissioners repealed a longstanding exemption for those transit services. A new law signed by Gov. Bob Ferguson earlier this year called for it. School buses will continue to be exempt.

Under the state transportation budget, Washington State Ferries must generate $408.8 million from fares in the next two years to help cover operating costs. Officials estimated the fare hike will bring in $412.3 million. The increase comes on top of a 50-cent bump to the vessel replacement surcharge, which will be $1 per ticket starting Oct. 1.

Washington State Ferries is also adding a new 3% fee on credit card transactions beginning March 1. Ferry officials estimate the vessel surcharge hike will net $23.9 million and the credit card fee another $7.4 million in the 2025-27 budget cycle. But those dollars cannot be applied toward the fare revenue requirement, says Aaron Halbert, a financial analyst for the commission.

Fares differ by route, vehicle size, number of passengers, and time of year. A surcharge is assessed on the base fare of a single vehicle between May 1 through Sept. 30, which is the peak season for ridership. Under the new rates, the standard passenger fare on the Mukilteo-Clinton route will climb 70 cents in October and an another 15 cents in May. For a standard-sized vehicle, the cost will go up 85 cents this October and another 30 cents next May.

On the Seattle-Bremerton route, the passenger fare will rise by 80 cents in October and 30 cents next May. For standard vehicles, the increases are $1.05 this fall and 55 cents in May. These amounts include the 50-cent increase in the vessel replacement levy but not the peak season surcharge or the credit card fee, both of which take effect next year. The summer surcharge will climb by 10% to the new level of 35% for all routes, except San Juan routes, which already have a 35% peak season levy.

Even with the fare changes, 2.3 million more people are expected to travel on a ferry in this budget cycle compared to the last one — a 6% increase in ridership. One reason is that domestic service is fully restored for the first time since 2019, Halbert says Another is the governor’s decision to delay hybrid-electric conversions of the largest ferries in the fleet to keep vessels in service.

But ridership is still way below pre-pandemic levels. Roughly 20 million people will travel on a ferry this year compared to 24.7 million in 2018 and 23.9 million in 2019.

Tom Thiersch, chair of the Ferry Advisory Committee on Tariffs, says the committee agrees with the final proposal. He’s also  frustrated that the state continues to demand ferry riders cover a much larger share of the system’s operating costs than users of other public transit services. Continually increasing fares, he says, is “making ferry travel unaffordable for many people “ and is not sustainable.

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