Port Orchard ferry: Kitsap Transit's twelve-minute foot ferry to Bremerton

$2.00, twelve minutes, every half hour. Those three numbers are the Port Orchard foot ferry, and they are why the route behaves more like a bus line than a ferry. Kitsap Transit runs it as route 500 in its own network, sells it at the bus fare, and times each crossing of Sinclair Inlet at 12 minutes from the Port Orchard Ferry Dock to the Bremerton waterfront.

What makes it confusing is the company it keeps at the Bremerton end. The same waterfront is served by the Kitsap Transit fast ferry to Seattle, a roughly 30-minute passenger run to Pier 50 that charges $2.00 heading into Seattle and $13.00 coming back, and by Washington State Ferries, whose Seattle/Bremerton car ferry takes about an hour. Neither of those goes to Port Orchard, and neither accepts a foot-ferry fare. Many riders use the foot ferry precisely to reach them.

On weekdays the first boat leaves Port Orchard at 04:25 and the last one leaves Bremerton at 21:00. Weekends are shorter, and from September 28 the Saturday evening service that ran through the summer to meet late fast-ferry arrivals comes to an end.

Half-hourly from before dawn on weekdays, and shorter days at the weekend

Kitsap Transit schedule effective September 28, 2026, read on September 24, 2026 and checked against the agency's GTFS feed valid to December 5, 2026   Kitsap Transit — Port Orchard Ferry Update Effective September 28 · 2026-09-24

A bus fare on the water, and free for anyone 18 or under

The foot ferry costs exactly what a Kitsap Transit bus costs: $2.00 one way, or $1.00 for riders who qualify for the reduced fare. Anyone 18 or under rides free; teenagers from 13 up should tap a Youth ORCA card as they board.

Crews give no change. You can pay with exact cash, a Transit GO mobile ticket, an ORCA card, or by tapping a contactless bank card or phone on the ORCA reader, which always charges the full adult fare. ORCA users get a free two-hour transfer to Kitsap Transit buses on either side.

Kitsap Transit fares for routed buses and local foot ferries, read on September 24, 2026   Kitsap Transit — Fares (Routed Buses & Local Foot Ferries) · 2026-09-24

A downtown dock in Port Orchard, a transit hub in Bremerton

Both ends are in the middle of town, which is the point of the service: it links two downtowns and the buses that serve them.

Sinclair Inlet, from downtown Port Orchard to the Bremerton waterfront

Kitsap Transit describes the route as the link between downtown Bremerton and Port Orchard across Sinclair Inlet. On the map, the Port Orchard dock sits on the south shore and the Bremerton dock on the north, just under a mile and a half apart in a straight line. Of the two Pacific Northwest ferries covered here, only this one works salt water.

Transit-boat habits that a ferry terminal never taught you

• Three different boats leave Bremerton

  The foot ferry goes to Port Orchard. The Kitsap Transit fast ferry goes to Seattle's Pier 50 in about 30 minutes, and the Washington State Ferries car ferry takes about an hour to Seattle. Each has its own schedule and fare.

• No change on board

  Crews do not give change, so pay with exact cash, an ORCA card, the Transit GO app or a contactless card tap.

• Accessible, unless the small boat is standing in

  Crews lay down a ramp for wheeled boarding on most foot ferries. When a large boat breaks down, a smaller one fills in that is not wheelchair accessible, and right now there is no backup boat at all.

• Five bikes per boat

  Each of the three local ferries is certified for five bicycles, so on a busy commute a bike may have to wait for the next sailing.

• Park in Lot 4 on the Port Orchard side

  Kitsap Transit sends drivers to paid parking in downtown Port Orchard's Lot 4 through ParkMobile. There is no free foot-ferry lot at either end.

• Two days with no boats

  Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day have no foot-ferry service. On Christmas Eve the last departures are 16:30 from Port Orchard and 16:45 from Bremerton.

Shipyard shifts, and the last working boat of the Mosquito Fleet

Kitsap Transit describes the foot ferry's first job without romance: moving Puget Sound Naval Shipyard employees between Port Orchard and Bremerton every working day, and giving South Kitsap residents a way to reach the Seattle fast ferry. The weekday timetable shows it, starting before half past four in the morning.

The boats are another matter. The Carlisle II, built in 1917 and named after a Bellingham salmon cannery, is described by Kitsap Transit as the oldest continuously operated ferry on Puget Sound and one of only two working vessels left from the Mosquito Fleet, the hundreds of small boats and ferries that carried people and cargo around the Sound before the automobile. It had a $1.5 million renovation, with a new engine, generator, propeller and planking. Its running mate, the Waterman of 2019, was the first hybrid-electric ferry in commercial passenger service on Puget Sound. Far to the east, the state-run Keller crossing on Lake Roosevelt shows how differently Washington handles a crossing when there is a highway on both sides.

Three small boats, one of them launched in 1917

Sinclair Inlet commuter questions, from first boat to last