Kitsap Fast Ferries
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Rich Passage 1 in Bremerton, prior to the start of ferry service
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| Locale | Kitsap County, Washington |
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| Waterway | Puget Sound |
| Transit type | Passenger ferry |
| Operator | Kitsap Transit |
| Began operation | July 10, 2017 |
| No. of lines | 1 (2 planned) |
| No. of vessels | 1 (5 planned) |
| No. of terminals | 2 |
| Website | kitsaptransit.com |
Kitsap Fast Ferries is a passenger ferry service operating between Seattle and Kitsap County in the U.S. state of Washington. It is funded and operated by Kitsap Transit and began service in July 2017, with a single boat traveling between Seattle and Bremerton. Additional boats, for routes to Kingston and Southworth, are planned to enter service from 2018 to 2020.
The passenger-only ferry service, approved by voters in 2016, was preceded by one operated by Washington State Ferries between 1986 and 2003. This state-run system ceased operations after a class-action lawsuit forced its vessels to slow down when traveling through Rich Passage to reduce wake damage. Kitsap Transit briefly operated its own passenger ferries from 2004 to 2007, but failed to receive voter approval for two sales tax funding measures. The agency commissioned a low-wake vessel, Rich Passage 1, which was used from 2011 to 2012 for research and trial runs that determined it could operate at high speeds without creating a damaging wake.
During the late 19th century and early 20th century, the Puget Sound region was served by a variety of passenger steamship ferries known collectively as the "mosquito fleet". Some of these routes connected Kitsap County to docks in Seattle, eventually replaced by automobile-and-passenger ferry service operated by the Puget Sound Navigation Company, which became the state-operated Washington State Ferries system in 1951.
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