BREMERTON — Consultants hired to revamp Kitsap Transit’s fast ferry reservation system suggest the agency keep its current vendor but add a “convenience” fee for riders to save a spot.

Four Nine Technologies was hired in June to review and recommend changes to a reservation system that has posed problems for riders since fast ferry service began in 2017. Commuters have complained that the system is difficult to navigate, faces long load times during peak reservation periods and is open to abuse.

In a report to the Kitsap Transit board of commissioners last week, Four Nine Technologies’ project manager Curtis Pierce laid out data collected from commuters and proposed several alternatives to the current system.

Kitsap’s situation is unique among transportation agencies in North America, Pierce told the board, because it allows riders to book the service on a recurring basis. Unlike buying one-off concert or plane tickets, fast ferry riders usually want to save a spot for themselves on the same sailings every day to and from Seattle.

“We were unable to find a peer that did that,” Pierce said.

Related:Reservation system frustrates fast-ferry users

Consultants studied other options, including upgrading the current system, buying new reservation software off-the-shelf, building a custom system from the ground up, adding a reservation fee, increasing fares during peak sailing times and getting rid of reservations altogether.

Getting rid of the reservation system would be the cheapest option but would likely offset any time advantage from the fast ferry since riders would show up earlier to get in line, Pierce said.

No off-the-shelf program fits Kitsap Transit’s needs exactly and buying one would negate the money the agency has paid into upgrading the current system, Pierce said. A custom system would be expensive and time-consuming to build.

Out of all the options, consultants recommended Kitsap Transit continue to improve its current system while charging riders a fee to make a reservation.

Adding a reservation fee would likely decrease the number of people who reserve a seat and then don’t show up for the sailing, and could also stop people from overbooking seats, Pierce said.

“We talk about (the price) in the recommendations as high enough to dissuade people from making erroneous, sort of unneeded, reservations, while low enough to not shift them off of your service,” Pierce said.

He added that Kitsap Transit should study the idea more but estimated a possible fee to be between $1 and $1.50 per reservation.

Consultants also recommended Kitsap Transit only let riders book one seat per direction per day and add a method to check the status of the walk-on line ahead of time.

Kitsap Transit executive director John Clauson said there is still work to do before the agency would consider implementing a reservation fee.

Most riders who use the fast ferry — 37 percent — pay their fares with a monthly pass provided by their employer, according to a survey by Four Nine Technologies. Part of the work includes figuring out if those monthly pass holders would also pay a reservation fee, Clauson said.

One big question is what will happen to the reservation system after the next two Rich Passage-class vessels come online. The next two RP-vessels, which are expected to be completed this spring, will also carry 118 passengers.

An ideal situation would have one vessel leaving every half-hour during peak times, Clauson said. But Kitsap Transit still needs to take delivery of two ferries, conduct sea trials and set a schedule approved by King County before that can happen.

“Before the staff would make a recommendation for something like that, we would have to have all those issues laid out and make sure the board would be comfortable with the policies we would be implementing,” Clauson said.

Pierce recommended that Kitsap Transit continue using the reservation system even after the second ferry begins service. He pointed to Washington State's fast ferry system that operated during the mid-2000s, which ran larger fast ferries and still struggled to meet demand.

"There's demand out there that's hiding that hasn't come out of the woodwork yet and will come out of the woodwork," Pierce said.