WSF addresses reductions in service during COVID pandemic

— from Amy Scarton for Washington State Ferries —

A few weeks ago I explained that any changes to our current reduced schedules will be based on our COVID Response Service Plan’s four pillars of service – ridership, crew availability, vessel availability and funding. With more than 100 high-risk employees unavailable due to the pandemic, one of those metrics, crewing, has been a challenge. Due to a lack of crewmembers needed to meet U.S. Coast Guard safety requirements, we were forced to tie up a vessel this past weekend on our Edmonds/Kingston, Mukilteo/Clinton and Anacortes/San Juan Islands routes. We made this difficult decision to maintain some service across our system as many routes are already downsized to just one boat.

We might be forced to make future temporary adjustments because of lack of crew, but pledge to provide as much advance notice as we can. I know how service changes can be frustrating, especially for communities that rely on us as a vital link to the mainland. I ask for your patience during this difficult time, when most counties remain under directives to travel for essential purposes only.

First new deck employee orientation during pandemic

Before a new employee can serve as a crewmember on one of our vessels, they must go through more than a week of specialized training, which includes firefighting, personal safety and survival, classroom time, remote learning at home and job duty familiarization out in our fleet. Due to COVID-19, we were unable to conduct any of these face-to-face new deck employee orientations until this week. We’re currently training 10 of our terminal employees who are transferring to the deck department. We separated them into two smaller classes of five aboard the recently retired Elwha and required the use of gloves, glasses and masks.

Statewide mandatory face covering order

Starting tomorrow, June 26, every Washingtonian in an indoor public space, or in an outside public space when unable to physically distance from others, will be legally required to wear a face covering. This includes on our ferries and in terminals. For more than a month, we have required all our employees to wear a mask at work and strongly encouraged that our customers use a face covering.