Guest Opinion: WSF Option to Increase Long-term Reservations Challenged

— by Alex MacLeod —

Washington State Ferries held the last of its public meetings on the status of the reservation system on Shaw Thursday evening, and the message delivered — the same as what they heard on Orcas, San Juan and Lopez, and which they’ve also gotten from the county’s Ferry Advisory Committee and the 30-member County Ferry Partnership Committee — was clear:

— The reservation system, to the surprise of some, is working quite well. We like the predictability of getting on a particular sailing, not having to arrive four hours early or sit for hours if we’re overloaded, and there’s generally enough flexibility in the system to meet our various needs.

— Any changes in the system next spring should be small and limited to changes in when reservations need to be cancelled and possible financial “incentives” for doing so to give travellers and ferry staff timely information to make the most of each sailing.

Despite that, Brian Churchwell, who leads the reservation program and facilitated the community-feedback meetings, wrote to the FAC Wednesday saying that WSF is “strongly looking” at a new system pushed by the county’s hospitality industry.

This option would double the number of reservations available two months in advance of travel and then add just 20% somewhere between 2 and 7 days in advance. The remaining 20% would be left for drive-up standby travel. This would replace the existing three-tier system in which 30% of capacity is released two months in advance, another 30% two weeks ahead and a final 30% two days ahead, leaving 10% for standby travel.

FAC members responded that WSF has provided no data to support such a dramatic change. In fact, data WSF has presented would indicate the hospitality industry has been served very well by the system. Tax collections were up significantly last summer, indicating healthy tourism, and ferry ridership was also up, even though capacity went down when the Sealth was called in to replace the ailing Elwha last winter/spring.

Going further, FAC chair Jim Corenman of San Juan Island, responded to Churchwell that the “feedback we are aware of…do not support your conclusion. We need to understand what else you are relying on.” Other than pressure from the hospitality people.

Churchwell’s note to the FAC reflects a common failing of many other government agencies and legislative processes: ignoring the message of the many in favor of the few with special connections. While the hospitality industry was well represented on the Partnership Committee, which met many times with WSF in formulating the reservation system, Churchwell Thursday said only one regularly attended, so the industry was “under-represented.”

Now, through a non-public process, the group apparently has convinced WSF to change the reservation system in ways that primarily benefit them, and in the face of all other feedback and data that says the system is working very well most of the time for most of WSF’s customers.

Churchwell would have us believe the changes WSF prefers is in response to “many locals” who say they need more flexibility to travel without reservations, yet its own data show fully 25% of all reservations are made the day of sailing. While there may be a need for more short-notice flexibility, that could easily be achieved by tweaking the cancellation and fee policies, adding some number of drive-up reservations and cutting off reservations for those who fail to get through the ticket booths at least 20 minutes ahead of a sailing.

The take-a-way from this is pretty clear: Don’t trust WSF to do what the vast majority of its customers have said should be done. Having quite remarkably created a from-scratch reservation system that largely works and is generally quite popular, leave it to WSF to mess it up now.

(Alex MacLeod is a resident of Shaw Island and a former member of the county’s Ferry Advisory Committee.)