HB 1701 - DIGEST

     Requires the department and the commission to take into account the public benefit derived from encouraging the availability and use of passenger-only ferry service, including but not limited to:

     (1) The long-term environmental and economic benefit from providing a reliable, reasonably priced alternative for moving people over Washington's navigable waterways and the resulting reduction in automobile traffic;

     (2) The necessity for up-front investment to build the passenger-only ferry service into a viable component of the transportation choices available to Washington's citizens;

     (3) The potential savings to the state from avoided investment in cross-sound vehicular transportation; and

     (4) The stimulus to balanced economic development to western Puget Sound and island communities served by the ferry system.