North Carolina drivers who have ridden state ferries for free for decades are about to start paying tolls, but as of now, nobody knows exactly how much those tolls will cost or how they'll be collected. The state budget signed into law in early July 2026 requires tolls on all of North Carolina's vehicle ferry routes starting January 1, 2027, yet the legislation itself does not specify toll amounts or collection methods, leaving those details to be worked out in the coming months.
That task now falls to the North Carolina Department of Transportation, which plans to propose a tolling plan and rates by October 8, 2026, according to the News & Observer. The NCDOT Ferry Division will then present that plan to the state Board of Transportation, a 20-member body that sets transportation policy, which is scheduled to review the proposed tolling plan on November 5, 2026. Richard Stradling, who covers transportation for the paper, reports that four of the state's car ferries currently run free of charge, while NCDOT already charges drivers on three of the seven coastal car-ferry routes and also charges passengers on a seasonal passenger-only ferry between Ocracoke and Hatteras.
Public Meetings Set for Early September
Before NCDOT finalizes anything, the agency has scheduled five public listening sessions in coastal communities, all running from 6 to 8 p.m. The sessions begin September 1 at Beaufort County Community College in Washington, followed by September 2 at Pamlico Community College's Delamar Center in Grantsboro, September 3 at Knotts Island Elementary School, September 8 at the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum in Hatteras, and September 9 at Ocracoke School.
Daniel Johnson, speaking to the News & Observer, said NCDOT will use the meetings to engage the public and gather feedback on the tolls. He also acknowledged the schedule is tight, noting that the department must quickly decide toll amounts and collection methods before the January 1 deadline. That timeline concern echoes what the Ocracoke Access Alliance told the Coastal Review in late July, when the group formally asked the General Assembly to push the deadline back a full year to January 1, 2028, warning that building, testing and deploying a new tolling system on high-volume, unreserved routes within six months is not operationally realistic.
A $150 Pass for Locals, But Not for School Buses
To soften the blow for year-round coastal residents, the state will offer a $150 annual ferry pass to permanent residents of 20 coastal counties. The new law also carves out an exception for school buses, which will not be required to pay toll fees, per WUNC. Vehicle fares on North Carolina's three existing tolled ferry routes — Southport-Fort Fisher, Cedar Island-Ocracoke, and Swan Quarter-Ocracoke — currently range between $7 and $15 per single trip, according to Carolina Journal, offering a rough benchmark for what riders on newly tolled routes might eventually pay.
The busiest of those newly tolled routes will be the Silver Lake ferry, which operates between Hatteras and Ocracoke islands, the state's busiest vehicle crossing. That crossing has been toll-free since 1957, when North Carolina purchased the private wooden-deck ferry service originally established in 1950 by local captain Frazier Peele, Coastal Review notes. Nearly 70 years of free passage across Hatteras Inlet is now coming to an end.
Coastal Lawmakers Broke Ranks Over the Mandate
The toll requirement has already scrambled state politics. State Senators Bobby Hanig and Norman Sanderson cast preliminary no votes against the $34.4 billion budget bill specifically over the ferry toll requirement, marking the first time since 2013 that a Republican senator voted against a full state budget bill, Carolina Journal reported. Sanderson, speaking from Minnesott Beach, said the ferry system is an important part of coastal residents' lives, and coastal lawmakers broadly opposed the new tolls.
During late July negotiations over a budget technical corrections bill, Hanig prepared five amendments to eliminate or delay the ferry toll requirement, but none were considered or included in the final conference committee package, Coastal Review reported. When he signed the budget into law on July 7, Governor Josh Stein singled out the new ferry toll mandate as one of the most significant flaws in the spending plan. Despite that criticism, legislative leaders have said tolls are a fair way to fund replacement of the system's older boats.
Aging Fleet Behind the Push for Toll Revenue
The General Assembly stipulated that toll revenue must go toward replacing vessels in the ferry system, and the fleet's condition helps explain the urgency. Nine of the Ferry Division's 22 active vessels have already exceeded their expected design service life, according to NC Office of State Budget and Management records, creating maintenance backlogs and Coast Guard compliance demands. North Carolina's ferry network, which runs 22 vessels across seven year-round routes and one seasonal route, is the second-largest state-run ferry system in the country, carrying roughly 1.5 million passengers and 800,000 vehicles annually, per Connect NCDOT data.
Separately, under House Bill 1094, State Auditor Dave Boliek was directed to conduct a comprehensive audit of Ferry Division operations, maintenance spending, and route structures, with a report due to lawmakers by January 15, 2027 — after the tolls are already set to take effect. Whether that audit, or NCDOT's October rate proposal, prompts further legislative changes before the January 1 deadline remains an open question. Hoodline previously covered NCDOT's ferry operations in its 2025 ferry schedule rollout and reported on winter storm-driven ferry suspensions to Ocracoke Island earlier this year.
