||| BY LIN MCNULTY, ORCASONIAN EDITOR |||
Attorneys for San Juan Express (SJE) filed a Petition to Temporarily Discontinue 2022 Commercial Service with Washington Utilities & Transportation Commission on April 13, 2022.
The request follows a new ruling after a major vessel fire off the coast of California, that would limit SJE’s vessel capacity to 150 passengers “for the indefinite future until and unless significant design changes in the vessel were implemented.”
“[Adjusting] underlying rates to a level necessary on reduced capacity to generate a reasonable operating profit might pose such a risk of rate shock that future seasonal service resumptions could be threatened to the point of jeopardizing the sustained viability of this important commercial ferry route,” they state.
“Granting this Petition and providing a sufficient interval to explore alternative vessel options and financing,” their pleading lays out, “whether remodeling and modernizing the current vessel assigned to the route or exploring alternative lease or purchase arrangements for a substitute vessel, the company asserts is fully consistent with the public interest under these particularly exigent circumstances.”
The matter is set to be heard by Washington Utilities & Transportation Commission on Thursday, April 28.
