The dizzying updraft in the cost of petroleum could affect the long-term plans for the Fauntleroy Ferry Terminal as well as the entire state ferry system, says a member of the Washington State Transportation Commission.

"This is uncharted territory," said Commissioner Bob Distler. According to Bloomberg.com, the price of a barrel of crude oil last Saturday was over $75. Not long ago it was $58 a barrel, Distler said.

While fuel prices soar, Washington State Ferries has been operating with additional cost increases and lower budgets for the past several years. The Washington Legislature decided to keep a few passenger-only boats going but only until another transit agency or private venture can take over, said Ray Deardorf, chief of planning for the state ferry system.

Many Fauntleroy residents, hassled by car and truck traffic waiting to get aboard a ferry or roaring away from one, have encouraged continuation of passenger-only ferries. Their hope has been that new passenger-only ferry service could develop to take people from Vashon Island and Southworth straight downtown without going through Fauntleroy. However, higher fuel prices could make passenger-only ferries an even less profitable enterprise.

The long-range plan for the Fauntleroy Ferry Terminal remains intact: Do not expand. Replace the wooden terminal building with a concrete structure of the same size. Expand the Southworth Ferry Terminal to two slips and send passengers and their cars directly downtown, bypassing Fauntleroy altogether.

If the ferry system plan is enacted eight years from now, the Southworth Terminal would have two ferry slips where there is one now. There's been significant population growth in southern Kitsap County and many of those people work in downtown Seattle. The ultimate destination for two-thirds of passengers sailing from Southworth to Fauntleroy is downtown. They have long relied on the Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth ferries to get to work.

In the future, the only car-carrying ferries that would call at the Fauntleroy Ferry Terminal would arrive from Vashon Island.

The Hiyu, a small ferry with room for 200 passengers and 34 cars, would shuttle between Vashon and Southworth.

Ferry system planners used regional transportation and employment projections for a glimpse at the next 25 years. The data indicates a 70 percent increase in passengers and a 40 percent increase in vehicles.

Expect to see higher fares too. Subsidized for years, Washington State Ferries has a goal to recover at least 80 percent of the cost of operating the ferry system 25 years from now, Deardorf said.

A man at the Fauntleroy meeting asked if the ferry system has considered "variable pricing," meaning ticket prices would rise during busy commuting times.

Deardorf said the ferry system is moving toward electronic fare collection.

A similar system is being installed later this year to pay for the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.

First a motorist opens a prepaid account with a minimum of $30. The account can be automatically replenished with a debit card, credit card or automatic draft. A small electronic sticker is attached to the inside of the car windshield and the toll is deducted from the account each time he or she drives over the bridge. The sticker is recorded through an antenna mounted above the roadway.

Tim St. Clair can be contacted at tstclair@robinsonnews.com or 932-0300.