||| FROM KIRO NEWSRADIO |||
Washington’s ferry meltdown didn’t start with this week’s sick-out. Charles Prestrud of the Washington Policy Center traces it back to Inslee’s vaccine mandate, which pushed 132 experienced ferry workers — engineers, captains, essential crew — into termination or early retirement right when the staffing cliff was already approaching.
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Republican right wing media comments that is about half accurate.
Accurate, but … The loss of WSF employees during Covid because they refused to get vaccinated is a minor contributing factor to the engineers union’s 2026 action not show up for work.Reminder the first case of Covid was in Washington State … estimated 1.2 million died in the U.S. before it was brought under reasonable control but not eliminated. A WSF ticket seller in Seattle died of Covid. Some of the WSF workers were engineers, and the story says they can be on ferries (public transportation system) and not be exposed to the public. Maybe these two media types have never watched a ferry crew change?
Accurate, but … WSF has very old ferries an fleet is breaking down.” SJC residents thinks of the oldest vessel in the fleet … the Tillicum. But WSF added 7 new ferries 2010-2018, and with the 2018 delivery, the average age of the WSF operating fleet was the lowest since they took over the ferry system in 1951. WSF had a couple of vessels still counted in the total fleet that were tied up at Bainbridge Island and awaiting disposal … they were not operational.
Accurate, but … Electric ferries will resort to running their diesel engines because the dwell time will prove to be insufficient to fully charge the batteries. Partially true, but they fail to mention that running the diesel engines also charges the batteries. Anyone who has owned a gasoline or diesel powered car or boat knows that.
Accurate, but … Electric ferries will not save any money. This is true. Electric ferries cost more to build, and the crew manning is based on Coast Guard requirements based on safety and the number of crew required to fight a fire or get passenger off injured case of an accident situation. But the current WSF 151,000+ ferry trips a year produce about 180,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases (GHGs) , and the plan is electric ferries will reduce that by more than 70% by 2040. Right wing media is still of the “drill baby drill” mindset.
The real reason for the engineers sick out is about pay. The reported are asking for 20% increase., but the actual ask number is a still secret. The current union contract is available to the public, but WSF actual pay and benefits are excluded from Washington State employee pay schedules because of a 25 year old TSA rule. It took me almost a year to finally get the list … and more than 80% of the names were redacted and no benefits costs were listed
Thanks for the balancing commentary, Robert.
The bias and tone of the questions/statements of the smirking interviewer were clear but the piece is helpful.
As a longtime conservationist and 40 year advocate of the now settled science of human accelerated climate change I think our governors jumped the gun on complex, highly expensive hybrid ferries – what 3 or 4 by 2030, (with very likely additional cost overruns) and not to sail our route I hear. It is also important to remember that our ferries contribute a very small part of our state’s overall climate changing pollution and with each trip one must consider the estimated 150 cars and trucks that for the mileage to Anacortes are not emitting gases. The ferry building process from mining rare earth minerals to steel creation and transportation for larger, more complex vessels will contribute majorly to greenhouse gases and must be considered. The numerous port alterations and extreme costs for fast recharging and the additional use of ever expensive electricity must also be factored in.
Nothing is simple anymore if anything ever was, but knee-jerk environmentalism, especially out here s often unhelpful.
2040 is a very long time from now and likely to be an unrealistic target for the replacement strategy with costs for everything straining budgets but more importantly the current national administration is ensuring that carbon emmisions will continue to INCREASE substantially thus fueling the Great Emergency and sealing the terrible apocalyptic fate of humankind. Our switch to hybrid ferries and
Respectful points … very complicated decisions.
BC ferries currently have six diesel electric ferries operating and just contracted for four more. Their electrification for these ferries is not yet in place, so they are running on diesel power probably for another year and a half.
Many European ferries are now operating as diesel/electrics. They seem to be about five years ahead of WSF because they have much of the electrical work in place. I was positively impressed when I experienced them in Europe.
A WSF ferry life cycle is planned at 60 years with frequent refreshes and a major overhaul near half life. So the new ferries that will be here should be operating until about 2090.
To complicate the decision, the original plan when the ferry service was purchased in 1951 was to build toll bridges across many of the routes the ferries now serve. That met with major opposition from Vashon and the more rural Kitsap side … they didn’t want accelerated growth/population expansion. That opposition to bridges to replace some ferry routes with bridges seems to continue to exist and WSDOT has dropped the bridges alternative.
I personally don’t feel WSF jumped the gun on this decision to switch to diesel electrics, but I respect the counter position that they are going to cost more, and Washington State is one of the few states that doesn’t have an income tax, so the state is going to have to wrangle about who pays what to keep the increasingly expensive ferry system operating.