KINGSTON – Kingston residents’ wishes for another attempt at a passenger-only ferry service to downtown Seattle may not be too far from realization.

After a change to state legislation, the $3.5 million grant originally held hostage through its tie with the tolling of Seattle’s 520 Bridge now rests in the Port of Kingston’s pockets.

In August 2007 Federal Transit Administration awarded the grant to the port to restart passenger-only services to Seattle. The port received the money on Aug. 25, one year after it was originally awarded.

The grant is intended for capital purchases and will go toward buying two vessels for the Port of Kingston’s Water Transit service, said Port Manager Mike Bookey, who said he wants a second boat for backup.

The port recently purchased the ferry terminal used by Aqua Express — the private company that ran a foot-ferry service from Kingston to downtown Seattle more than two years ago.

The port bought the terminal “Verlane” for $50,000 from the now-bankrupt Nichols Brothers of Whidbey Island.

Bookey said the port is beginning negotiations with Victoria Clipper for purchase of the ramp, which currently connects the Port’s fishing pier and covered holding area to the terminal.

Both the Nichols Brothers and Victoria Clipper were original partners of Aqua Express’s Kingston/Seattle passenger only ferry, Bookey said.

Since the Aqua Express passenger-only service ended after a nine month stint in 2006, Kingston residents vocalized a need for a similar service to start again.

The Aqua Express ferry ran from January 2005 through September 2006. When it ended, about 140 round trip passengers used the service daily, said Nells Sultan, organizer of the Kingston Express Association – a nonprofit that supports “anything that works to get a foot-ferry back,” he said.

The route had three runs in the morning and three at night.

In the end, Aqua Express wasn’t breaking even financially. The boat they were using — an old Washington State Ferry vessel — burned 260 gallons of fuel each trip. Aqua Express needed 400 patrons daily to break even.

“They were owned by a private service and when it came down to it, they were just spending more money than they were earning. They were not close to breaking even,” Sultan said.

Sultan, who commutes to downtown Seattle each day for work said his commute currently takes two hours. The Port of Kingston Water Transit would run from the Port of Kingston to Seattle’s Pier 50 – the Vashon Ferry Dock.

“It saves at least an hour on your day, it’s a straight-shot connection,” Sultan said. “Once this is up and running it’ll be 35 minutes each way.”

The next step, Bookey said, is to re-write the Port of Kingston Water Transit business plan. The port has asked the state for $900,000 over a period of four years for start-up costs, as it qualified for a transit service subsidy.

“We are a bus service that just happens to be on water,” Bookey said, stressing the name change. After start up, passenger fares have to cover operating costs 100 percent. The service is not taxpayer subsidized.

Bookey said he is working with the Victoria Clipper in choosing the vessels, which he’s looking at second-hand for affordability reasons.

The preferred vessel would carry between 80 and 100 passengers and only burn 50-60 gallons of fuel an hour, he said. “We want to start small and grow big,” Bookey said.

Because of its qualifications as a transit service, the port can buy fuel at wholesale prices, he added.

Currently the port has two options: “Either we run it ourselves as a division of the port or outsource another company to operate the vessel,” Bookey said. “It all depends on cost.”

When asked if operating a ferry might too much of a burden for the port’s six employees to take on Bookey laughed.

“I’m not guaranteeing 100 percent we can pull this off. We still have to get help from the state,” Bookey said. “There’s a lot of interest to see if we can do this. We are trying to pull this off on a shoestring.”

Although there are hoops to jump through, money and vessels to obtain and a business plan to work out, Bookey is calm when he says he’s optimistic about the operating opportunity.

“We like to say we are the little port that could,” he said. “How do you eat an elephant? Just one bite at a time.”