— by Lin McNulty —
County Councilmember Rick Hughes and Ferry Advisory Committee Member Larry Vandermay hosted a public forum on Wednesday afternoon at Eastsound Fire Station with a throng of nine attendees in the audience.
In an effort to be available and transparent and attentive, Hughes and Vandermay forged ahead in front of mostly empty seats to hear public comments and concerns regarding Washington State Ferries.
Prior to the public comment period, Hughes outlined projects currently underway, along with those in the works.
Orcas Landing
The Russell Building at the landing is to be seismically retrofit, decking added, along with improved ADA and public access to the existing fuel dock area. The ferry building across from Orcas Store will be removed to make space for a passenger drop-off area. Stormwater improvements are anticipated to prevent runoff into the Salish Sea.
Park and Ride
There is currently $740,00 set aside for a park and ride lot to be built on the hill north of the ferry staging area. The main purpose, stressed Hughes, is not to bring car-less tourists to the island, but for island residents to walk on the ferry.
The public process to determine how to keep traffic moving, get residents to Orcas Hill Road, has not yet begun. The project, fully budgeted, still has engineering challenges to work out. There are a “ton of moving parts,” Hughes pointed out.
Talks have been underway with Skagit Transit, as they apply for a state grant, to allow inter-county inter-connectivity to San Juan, Island, Skagit, and Whatcom counties via a bus at the Anacortes ferry landing. There may not be a bus for every ferry, but…one should be along shortly on a scheduled basis.
Reservations
The 30-minute arrival window was initiated by WSF to solve a problem. “And it hasn’t,” noted Hughes. With the 30-minute arrival window, overloads are 80-90 percent less, yet as Ed Sutton pointed out, “the spontaneity is gone.”
The FAC has been given no reason for 30-minute rule, and the San Juans is the only route on which the rule applies. While not able to promise that anything will change, Hughes encourages and emphasizes direct private/public pressure to have it changed.
An attendee pointed out that many ferry employees bring their own laptops to work so they can access current load status. The antiquated ferry software does not allow for that.
Our system is different than any other route. Operationally, the San Juan routes have a 40 percent fare box recovery rate, while Bainbridge runs provide more than 100 percent of their operating costs.
Funding
County Council and the FAC are seeking public input to take to the Legislature to ensure long-term, sustainable funding for our ferry system. We should be involved, supportive advocates; we should be partners and WSF is struggling with that. The more pressure, the better the results. WSF used to regularly visit FAC meetings, but it was pointed out by Vandermay that the new regime is not as transparent, perhaps not as responsive as in the past.
Mike Stolmeier stated he “can get on any boat by being there an hour early,” while noting that WSF encourages “insurance” reservations: book for everything and then cancel what’s not needed.
Logistical nightmare? Imperfect solution? Now is the time to become a squeaky wheel. Write, email, call your representatives to voice concerns.
I, for one, appreciate that the FAC hosted this meeting. Unfortunately for those of us who work full time, meetings that start during the work day don’t allow us to attend. Perhaps many missed it because they were affraid they might be late for their reservation that night if they showed up for the meeting?! (Sorry… Had to be said)
I echo much of what they say, but have to say that complaining to WSF seems like an exercise in futility. Many of us in the islands have forwarded messages, taken photographs and offered suggestions to WSF to no avail. Their current policies are in many cases diametrically opposed to the reasoning they offered at the pre-reservation meetings for their policies. There is little effort or incentive on the part of WSF to make their system better for users. I have emailed numerous issues to WSF over the past year and received exactly zero response to my emails. Only when I made a public records request did I receive a response from a WSF employee.
What we all need to keep in mind is that the entire reservation system is in place because of a legislative directive to WSF. It was not done to make travel easier, it was not done to increase commerce and it was not done with any study of possible economic impact on users. It was done because the legislature said to do it as an alternative to providing transportation funding. The reservation system will continue to operate without regard for any of the factors listed above and there is no incentive for WSF to make changes unless legislative pressure is applied.
So yes, continue to complain and apply pressure, but don’t do it to WSF. Pressure Ranker, Lytton and Morris. WSF won’t listen to us, but they may listen to them.
A number of WSF PR people had a public meeting on Orcas 6 to nine months ago. Rick Hughes was there. I believe the reservation system is working well. Remember that before it you had to be at the terminal at least an hour or an hour and a half ahead to guarantee you were on the boat. My beef is that the reservation web site takes you through many steps that are unnecessary. When they set up the site they had commercial accounts merged with residential accounts. A commercial account might be using different vehicles or credit cards. Most of us traveling are always in the same vehicle and using the same credit card. The fact that we have to go through all the steps of vehicle height, length, credit card, and worse than all the others is having to agree to the terms and conditions every time we book. Imagine having to do that every time you went to Facebook or youtube or opened Word. They need to separate Business from individuals. When we log in there could be a question like has anything changed. This would save us collectively hundreds or thousands of hours a month. Remember when the Affordable Care Act tanked on launch? They fixed that in a couple of weeks. WSF needs to be more reactive when a mistake they made is pointed out to them. The Terms and Conditions says it all.
I pointed the web site flaws immediately and again at the meeting on Orcas. This is a political issue. If the legislature puts heat on them they will react rather than be fired.
Justin, you are so right on target! Do you think they will ever get the message that we realize they are not listening to us….or will it take a meeting where nobody shows up? I can go lots of places to get smoke blown up my skirt….I just won’t go to the “we are listening to you!!!” WSF meeting to have it done. Nearly everything that has been done/is being done is counter to what we were told back during the “selling it” phase and what we have been told during the “we are fixing it” phase. This is not about the customer! I don’t believe there is even one good thing about the reservation system and it is getting worse instead of getting better! AT this point I just wish we had the old system back! Merry
Our weekend guests dutifully made a reservation and got to the LINE well before the 30 minute time. Unfortunately, someone ahead of them was at the booth for 10 minutes. 10 MINUTES. Had our guests not had a very memorable car, they might have missed the ferry–but the agent said, “Oh yes, I remember seeing your car in line, so OK.”