Last in a Series
Each school day, a pair of big yellow school buses – with the words “Currituck County Schools” spelled out on their flanks – travel the “most unusual route in North Carolina,” according to Susan Ladd of Morehead City, N.C., a contributor to Our State magazine.
Ladd said that the buses’ daily assignment is to gather up about 75 high school and middle school students on Knotts Island and carry them over to the mainland section of Currituck County, so they can attend classes at various schools in Currituck, Barco and Moyock.
(Photos by Chris Hannant, Our State magazine)
Each trip includes a bus ride on the Knotts Island-Currituck “free ferry” operated by the N.C. Department of Transportation (NCDOT) Ferry Division.
This
has been standard practice since 1962. Ladd reported that the 5-mile run across
Currituck Sound is about a 45-minute trip each way. Once aboard the ferry
vessel named the Gov. James B. Hunt, she said the students hop off the
bus and enter the passenger lounges to socialize with classmates in their
appropriate age group, relax, listen to music, twiddle on their phones and even
work on school assignments.
As a P.S. to Ladd’s article, which appeared in the August 2026 “School Days” section of Our State, it’s comforting to know that the Currituck school buses will be receiving “free passes” from the North Carolina General Assembly next year, when all state ferries will be subject to tolling.
School transportation vehicles will be exempt from paying the new ferry tolls that are scheduled to go into effect Jan. 1, 2027.
In
addition to Knotts Island-Currituck, the free ferry routes affected are Hatteras-Ocracoke,
Bayview-Aurora and Cherry Branch-Minnesott Beach.
People
who live in the 20 coastal counties will be able to buy an annual pass for $150
per vehicle, allowing them unlimited ridership on any of the ferries. However,
many details regarding the new ferry tolls remain to be hammered out.
The toll rates for individual ferry crossings have yet to be determined, and it’s still uncertain how the state intends to accommodate ambulances, fire apparatus, law enforcement vehicles, county vehicles, utility crews or other public service vehicles as well as those operated by essential vendors, repairmen and the like.
Then, there’s the matter of the costs to implement the tolling system for all the ferries. The Ocracoke Access Alliance (OAA) has estimated that an electronic collection system at Hatteras-Ocracoke alone could cost approximately $1 million to $3 million to establish, with annual maintenance costs potentially reaching $500,000.
Do we multiply that by four to arrive at the total expense?
The state is facing “a huge procedural challenge,” said Justin LeBlanc, the executive director of OAA. Many logistics experts have advised NCDOT to delay the changeover and go back to the drawing board and develop a comprehensive plan.
LeBlanc said the OAA has asked the General Assembly to push the effective date back to 2028.
One source commented: “Modern electronic tolling involves far more than installing cameras and transponder readers. The back-office system must manage customer accounts, vehicle records, invoices, payments, disputes, enforcement, financial reporting and customer service.”
“Any permanent ferry system must distinguish among multiple vehicle classes and trailers, recognize annual commuter passes, identify exempt vehicles, determine whether tolls should be collected in one or both directions, integrate with existing NC Quick Pass accounts or other payment methods and accommodate a high-volume, first-come, first-served boarding process that differs significantly from a traditional highway toll facility.”
Hyde County officials are asking coastal members of the N.C. Board of Transportation to intervene. These representatives are Tess Judge of Kitty Hawk, David Womack of Greenville and Landon Zimmer of Wilmington.
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