Weekly WSF Update | Ridership records; new ‘Ferry Talk’ podcast by 13-year old; sailing stats for week

As acting assistant secretary this week, I want to provide an update on our service levels. Summer is our Super Bowl, and all our employees are fully committed to providing the best service possible despite current crewing and vessel constraints. With increased demand, we feel the sting even more when there are service disruptions or smaller boats replacing ferries out for repairs or maintenance.

Crewing has been challenging recently due to an increase in health-related relief requests and vacation leave. When a relief request comes in, our dispatch team works hard to fill it. But if we’re short even one required U.S. Coast Guard crew member, we cannot sail until the position is filled. We understand these cancellations are very disruptive to our customers. We continue to recruit, hire and train new employees, but as existing crewmembers complete their credentialing, it will take time to grow our pool of relief employees for more senior positions.

Regarding our vessels, we are experiencing challenges on our Anacortes/San Juan Islands route due to mechanical issues with both Samish and Yakima. Our capable engineers and Eagle Harbor specialists are diligently working to restore these vessels to service as quickly and safely as possible. Despite these setbacks, we’ve also had some recent small victories with our fleet. On Sunday, following four weeks of maintenance, we restored regular summer vehicle capacity on our Edmonds/Kingston route with the return of the 188-car Spokane. We plan to leave it on that run with the 202-car Puyallup for the rest of the year. On Monday, we upsized our Mukilteo/Clinton route with the 124-car Chelan replacing the 90-car Sealth. We plan to have a 124-car Issaquah-class ferry serve alongside the 144-car Suquamish for all but one week until Labor Day weekend.

Sealth is now at our Fauntleroy/Vashon/Southworth route, operating as an unscheduled third ferry weekdays when crewing is available.

Fourth of July week ridership

We carried nearly 730,000 people from Friday, June 28, through Sunday, July 7. This is up from the roughly 705,000 riders we had during the same 10-day period in 2023. I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to all our employees who worked tirelessly over the busy July Fourth week to ensure we provided as much service as possible. Special recognition goes to our dispatch team for their efforts in filling multiple crew relief requests.

Saturday, July 6, had the highest ridership at 83,996, making it our busiest day so far this year, beating out Saturday, May 11, when we carried 80,159 people.

Operations Director Beth Stowell featured in podcast

The Women Offshore Foundation recently spotlighted the life and work of Director of Operations Beth Stowell in their weekly podcast. During the episode, Beth talks about how her maritime career brought her to where she is now, leading our largest department through a transformational culture change that is setting a new standard in the industry. Women Offshore is an online non-profit organization and resource center established in 2017 to support a diverse workforce on the water.

According to Women Offshore, this podcast episode featuring Director of Operations Beth Stowell is “essential for anyone interested in maritime operations, leadership and industry transformation.”

New ‘Ferry Talk’ podcast

And speaking of podcast, a new podcast all about Washington State Ferries launched this month. “Ferry Talk” is the creation of local resident Margot Kahn Case and her 13-year-old son Toby, who has loved transportation since he was a little kid. In their first episode, they interview Washington State Transportation Commission Executive Director Reema Griffith about how our vessels are named. New episodes will be released on Thursdays this summer.

Slip 3 at Seattle’s Colman Dock closed until early 2025

Slip 3, where our Seattle/Bainbridge vessels normally park at Colman Dock, closed on Monday for improvements. This work is expected to last through early 2025. During this closure, both our Bremerton and Bainbridge ferries will share slip 1. However, when both boats are at the terminal, the Bainbridge vessel will dock at slip 2. This work, which is part of our Seattle Multimodal Terminal at Colman Dock Project, includes replacing the slip 3’s transfer span, which vehicles use to load and unload a ferry.

Slip 3 at Seattle’s Colman Dock is closed until early 2025 so construction crews can replace the overwater section leading to the ferry.

SR 305 daytime delays on Bainbridge Island July 15-16

Heads up if your ferry plans include midday travel on State Route 305 through northern Bainbridge Island early next week! From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday and Tuesday, July 15 and 16, the highway will be reduced to one alternating lane of traffic near Northeast Hidden Cove Road. During that time, maintenance crews will cut back brush and remove overhanging tree limbs along SR 305.

Sailing stats for week of June 24-30, July 1-7

For the week of June 24-30, we completed 99% of our 2,829 scheduled sailings. The 28 canceled sailings were due to crewing (57%), tides (24%), security reasons (2%) and schedule resets (21%), when a boat is so far behind schedule, we cancel a sailing to get it back on schedule, providing predictability for customers.

For the week of July 1-7, we completed 95.6% of our 2,827 scheduled sailings. Out of the 129 canceled sailings, we rescheduled six sailings. The cancellations were due to crewing (63%), tides (16%), mechanical reasons (1%) and schedule resets (19%).

Customer kudos

“I have enjoyed brief, pleasant exchanges with ticket sales personnel at both the Edmonds and Kingston terminals. Over the years I have grown a nice friendship with a ticket seller on the Kingston side and 2 on the Edmonds side. It truly adds to the experience. I so appreciate having real people processing the ticket sales! Human connection should continue to be considered to be important!”

-Edmonds/Kingston customer