WSF Weekly Report | Celebrating 73 years of service

||| FROM STEVE NEVEY for WASHINGTON STATE FERRIES |||

A message from Steve

I often get asked why I made the decision to leave the cruise industry and come to Washington State Ferries. First of all, life is complex, and I find there is no “one-size-fits-all” response to that question. The practical answer is that I thought it was the best thing for my career and for my family.

Then there is the answer as to what inspired me about WSF before I worked here. I knew of our green-and-white vessels for a long time, but I became fascinated with them 10 years ago. That was when my wife and I – and both our families – traveled to Orcas Island for our wedding. Aside from the ceremony, the highlight of everyone’s trip was the ferry ride.

Several years ago, when I toured WSF headquarters, I recall seeing models of the ferries around the building and being impressed by the history and the people working there.

I also remember visiting WSF headquarters for a meeting while working on a project in the cruise industry. I thought, “It would be cool to work here one day.” I never imagined becoming the head of the place, and I still pinch myself when walking around the office. But it’s going out into the fleet and meeting with my colleagues that motivates and inspires me most. In my old role, I sometimes took multiple long-haul flights to reach the ships. Now I can drive to any terminal, vessel or facility and hear ideas from staff anytime.

As I have said before, it’s an honor of a lifetime to work for this iconic organization, and it’s an even greater honor to lead it. This week marks our 73rd birthday, and as we celebrate this milestone, I am reminded of the rich history and dedicated team that make WSF what it is today.

73 years of safe service

We will celebrate our 73rd birthday on Saturday, June 1. On that day in 1951, WSF began operations after taking control from the Puget Sound Navigation Company (Black Ball Line). Back then, we were a part of the Toll Bridge Authority under the Director of Highways. For more than seven decades, we have served as an extension of our state highway system, safely transporting more than a billion riders.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer news article from June 1, 1951, our first day of operations.

Memorial Day weekend ridership

We carried nearly 320,000 Memorial Day travelers from May 23-27. This was lower than projected and down slightly from the same five-day period in 2023, likely because the weather was sunnier and warmer over the holiday weekend last year. I want to thank all our employees who worked hard over the busy Memorial Day weekend so we could provide as much service as possible, including our dispatch team for being steadfast in covering multiple crew relief requests.

As expected, Saturday had the highest ridership at nearly 75,000, making it our fourth busiest day so far this year, following May 11, March 16 and May 12 – all unseasonably warm weekend days.

Sailing stats for week of May 20-26

For the week of May 20-26, we completed 98.3% of our 2,793 scheduled sailings. We were able to replace one of our 48 canceled sailings, which were due to a vessel being out of service (44%), crewing (6%) and schedule resets (25%), when a boat is so far behind schedule, we cancel a sailing to get it back on schedule, providing predictability for customers.

Customer kudos

“We live in a day and age of automated computer help, and request for assistance being provided by people outside the country and often confusing communication dialogue so dealing with the [WSDOT] ferry system this month was a [wonderful] surprise. I called your information center on three occasions and got three [different] people to assist me and all three were prompt (no wait time) all three were [knowledgeable], and extremely helpful to me and made this confusing [first-time user] of the WA ferry system an extremely pleasant experience.

“My compliments to your management team for facilitating such a customer friendly organization, hiring and training such good people behind the phones, and the [efficiency] of the assistance lines when calling in. I have not [been] this pleased calling in to a help line number in decades! Be proud! Well done!”