September is here and as summer fades into fall, we wanted to take the opportunity to thank all our loyal riders who enjoy and support the King County Water Taxi.

Over the last three months (June through August), both the West Seattle and Vashon routes continue to see strong ridership.  The West Seattle route had a phenomenal August, reaching 60,458 passengers – surpassing the sixty thousand rider mark for the first time. Overall this summer, West Seattle ridership exceeded last year’s record by over 18,000 passengers – a growth of 12.4 percent. Our marketing efforts continue to help drive those numbers, but our commuter base also was up by 5.2 percent for the summer.

The Vashon route also had an outstanding summer, exceeding last year’s summer ridership by nearly 5,000 passengers, an increase of 8.9 percent. Vashon seems to set a new single sailing passenger record each month. The latest record came on Aug. 11 when the 5:30 p.m. sailing carried 246 passengers on the MV Sally Fox, making great use of the capacity on the 278-passenger vessel.

The entire Marine Division, from the crew on the boat and shore, along with the engineering team behind the scenes, to the administration group in the office would like to thank all our loyal riders. We appreciate all our ridership family, who have found the most scenic and reliable commute around, and continue to make the Water Taxi apart of their day for work or pleasure.