Edmonds-Kingston is out, and the San Juans are in.

Ferry service in the San Juan Islands is now the top choice for the rollout of a expanded reservation system following a recent change in course by Washington State Ferries.

WSF Assistant Secretary David Moseley said the San Juans are better-suited to accommodate a reservations than are most other routes for several reasons.

Foremost, Moseley said, is that the agency can build on reservation systems already in operation. Reservations are required on the international run and commercial customers have long-relied on a quasi-system of reservations to secure a spot throughout the year.

In addition, Moseley said that ferry systems worldwide generally rely on reservations as a management tool on sailings similar to those in the San Juans, which, as well as being lengthy, experience an ebb and flow of recreational customers and seasonal demand.

“We need to sequence this in a way that goes from the most simple system to the more complex,” he said.

That’s one of the lessons learned from a “pre-design study” conducted by WSF during the past six months. Beginning in July, ferry officials met nearly a half-dozen times with a group of ferry users on the Edmonds-Kingston route to talk about how to set up a reservation system on that route, as well as across the system. Though it proved useful in helping to set up business rules for various user-groups, Moseley said the agency would have to start from scratch in implementing reservations at Edmonds-Kingston.

A year ago, Ferries was directed by the Legislature to explore a reservation system as a potential cost-cutting move. Ferries maintains it can save the state as much as $280 million on building bigger boats and larger terminals by employing a regimen of reservations systemwide, also a foundation of its long-range plan.

Mosely said WSF will upgrade and fine-tune reservation systems at work in the San Juans and on the Port Townsend-Keystone route, in the coming year, as step one. However, he said, after that, WSF will need legislative approval in order to expand. If all goes as planned, he said an expanded reservation system could be at work in the San Juans by sometime in 2011, but only after the agency meets with the community to hammer out the details beforehand.

For info on WSF’s pre-design study visit www.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries/planning/vehiclereservations.htm