Originally published by Outer Banks Voice: Ocracoke Access Alliance seeks one-year delay for new ferry tolls
By Kip Tabb | Outer Banks Voice on July 16, 2026
(NC Ferry System)
Update: In a Facebook post on Tuesday, July 21, the Ocracoke Access Alliance Facebook put out a CALL TO ACTION, encouraging individuals to contact legislators and ask them to delay the implementation of the new ferry tolls for a year–from January 2027 until January 2028. The Alliance stated that the new tolling system is “just not possible to implement by January of 2027.”
The Ocracoke Observer reports that the Ocracoke Business and Civic Association is holding a meeting on Tuesday, July 21 to discuss the pending tolls on the Hatteras Ferry. The event will be at 6 p.m. at the Community Center.
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Coastal officials voice concern, anger about new ferry tolls
By Kip Tabb | Outer Banks Voice
With a Jan. 1, 2027 deadline approaching for imposing a toll on all North Carolina ferry routes, local officials are voicing opposition to the item in the new state budget. Of the seven North Carolina NCDOT ferry routes that carry cars, four are currently free, including Hatteras/Ocracoke and Knotts Island. There is also a passenger only Hatteras/Silver Lake ferry that is tolled.
When implemented, residents of Ocracoke will have to pay to leave the island. Although residents of Knotts Island have the option of driving north to Virginia and then back to Currituck County, the trip is an hour-long ride along narrow country roads.
“It does definitely put an extra burden on us,” said Tony Angell, the Currituck County Commissioner who represents Knotts Island.
The budget does include a provision that allows local residents and military personnel to acquire a commuter pass that entitles the individual to travel on any ferry route with no additional fees. The cost of the annual pass is set at $150.00 per vehicle.
That toll, even with the savings the pass may represent, could create a financial burden for the residents of the area that rely on the ferries. “The cost of living’s already high on Ocracoke and that’s just going to add to a living expense,” said Randal Mathews, Hyde County Commissioner for Ocracoke.
The Hatteras/Ocracoke Ferry docks in Dare County, but County Manager Bobby Outten noted that the economic effect of the tolls on Dare County would be “negligible.” He added, however, that “to the people that it impacts, it would be important to them… The cleaner that drives over there [to Ocracoke] every day to clean cottages and makes a subsistence living, buying that ferry pass is meaningful to them.”
The North Carolina ferry fleet is aging. A technical report written for the Ferry Division in 2017 noted that the 21 ships in the fleet were built between 1965 and 2006. Most sources indicate a car ferry has a lifespan between 30 to 40 years, and as they age, repairs and finding replacement parts becomes increasingly expensive and difficult. The budget specifically calls for the tolls to be used for a Ferry Capital Special Fund to pay for new ferries.
Mathews acknowledged that new ferries are needed, but pointed out that the current crisis has been building for years. “They’ve been underfunded. The fleet’s aging,” he said.
State Senator Bobby Hanig, who represents District 1, which includes Currituck and Dare counties, has been a vocal opponent of placing a toll on the ferries in his district.
“Every ferry that is not tolled in the state of North Carolina was built in lieu of a bridge,” he told the Voice. Hanig added the residents who rely on ferries pay the state’s gas tax to maintain North Carolina’s transportation network, including the ferries.
“I pay the same gas tax as anybody else, and so does someone in Raleigh or wherever else. It’s a road. They shouldn’t have to pay to get on it,” he said.
Hanig who voted against the budget bill at its first reading because of his opposition to the ferry tolls, pointed to weaknesses in the tolls measure. “They’re just throwing numbers out there and putting them against the wall,” he said.
Because he was attending the funeral of former Currituck County Commissioner Owen Etheridge, Hanig was not available to cast his vote on the final budget bill, but he said that the budget “was going to pass. My one vote didn’t matter.”
His concern was echoed by Mathews, who said, “I don’t think the Ferry Division has enough time to actually come up with a good plan before January, knowing the timelines and some of the things they’re going to have to [and] some of the hoops they have to jump through.”
Angell noted that the legislation exempts school buses from the tolls but asked, “are you going to toll my son driving to school? Both my kids play sports, so there’s after- school activities. There’s a lot of things that don’t make sense with it.”
The Currituck Ferry has the lowest usage in the state and Angell worries “that this is a way that the state is going to put a toll on this ferry, and they’re going to see the usage of it is going to get lower, and then they’re going to be able to justify removing the ferry altogether.”
For his part, Mathews declared that the Hatteras/Ocracoke Ferry “should be free for us,” he said.
Referring to NCDOT, which will set the tolls, Hanig pointed out that “you have a non-elected agency setting a tax.”
A similar criticism was levelled by Angell. “It’s once again Raleigh makes a decision and doesn’t fully understand the impacts,” he said.
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