Weekly WSF report references recent public meetings

||| FROM PATTY RUBSTELLO for WASHINGTON STATE FERRIES |||

Recap of this week’s virtual public meetings

Thanks to everyone who joined us for our virtual public meetings on Tuesday and last night. We began each webinar with a brief presentation on upcoming summer service, hiring challenges and our process to restore service to pre-pandemic levels. We also discussed how additional funding from the 2022 legislative session provides us with a good down payment that invests in a more sustainable operation. The Move Ahead Washington bill includes $1.6 billion to move forward with building new ferries and implementing a portion of our systemwide electrification plan. Meanwhile, the 2022 Supplemental Transportation Budget provides initial funding for recruiting and retaining qualified personnel and a new dispatch system.

Members of our Executive Team and I answer questions from participants during Tuesday’s virtual public meeting.

Most of the time was spent answering questions and addressing concerns from participants about a range of topics. More than 450 people registered for the meetings! If you missed them, recordings will be posted on our community participation webpage next week.

Service restoration timeline

During the virtual public meetings, we shared a timeline for what’s next in our Service Restoration Plan (PDF 794KB), after successfully restoring service (Stage 4) on our Anacortes/San Juan Islands, Seattle/Bainbridge and Mukilteo/Clinton routes. While we continue to hire new crewmembers, our biggest issue is a lack of licensed deck officers such as captains and mates, who require significant training time. Because of this, it’s unlikely we’ll be able to move Edmonds/Kingston, our next prioritized run, to two-boat trial service (Stage 3) until late this year. However, we’ll continue to add a second boat there on a daily basis as crewing allows.

Our longest-serving captain in the fleet, Commodore Greg Sugden, oversees a class of new deckhands as they learn about pilothouse equipment aboard Wenatchee.

To encourage our current crewmembers to become licensed deck officers, we’re developing a “Pilotage Training Program,” so they’ll be paid to train as pilots and take required exams. Because of the time it takes to obtain a pilot’s license, our next class for new mates is scheduled for January 2023. We’ll hold this training sooner if several employees receive their pilot’s licenses before then.

A ferry tale wedding for Kentucky couple

Our ferries are a special place for many. So special for one couple that they traveled more than 2,000 miles for their perfect ferry tale wedding. Lara and Matt Wilder of Kentucky got married aboard Wenatchee on Saturday. They shared the special moment with nearly 30 family and friends who travelled from Kentucky and South Carolina. Read more on why the couple decided to get hitched on a ferry in our blog post. Congrats Lara and Matt!