WSF Weekly Report | Celebration of WSF 75th Anniversary

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

A message from Steve

A lot of people have been asking what we have planned for our 75th anniversary. For months now there’s been a bunch of things in the works. With June 1 just days away, I’m excited to share a rundown of how we’re going to celebrate this milestone. Festivities begin tomorrow, May 29, when KISW-FM 99.9 “The Rock” broadcasts its morning show from a ferry on our Edmonds/Kingston route. Then on Monday, our big day, a special “75 flag” will fly atop the Space Needle. Regional landmarks, including the State Route 520 floating bridge and the Seattle Great Wheel, will light up in ferry green. Riders on June 1 can receive a free anniversary sticker while supplies last. Our onboard food vendor, Sodexo Live!, will also offer a free small popcorn or coffee with any purchase that day only. And at Colman Dock from 3 to 5 p.m., ORCA will host a special activity station. Visitors can play games, win prizes and learn how to use an ORCA card to travel around Puget Sound. All our ferries in service will fly anniversary flags every day in June.

Terminal employee Adam Runestrand designed our 75th anniversary logo, which can be found on all of our commemorative items, and our agency’s graphics team helped fine-tune the final design.

Our diamond anniversary celebration doesn’t end after June 1. On Sunday, June 7, the Bainbridge Youth Orchestra will perform on our Seattle/Bainbridge route. All throughout the month, KNHC-FM C89.5 Public Radio will host onboard dance parties on the sun deck of ferries on several routes. And finally, riders are encouraged to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, X and Bluesky for chances to get anniversary keepsakes like keychains and temporary tattoos throughout the month. Celebrating this milestone is a testament to everyone who has supported Washington State Ferries. The effort put in by our deck and engine room crews, terminal staff, the warehouse, Eagle Harbor Maintenance Facility and headquarters to serve communities every day is incredible.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer news article from June 1, 1951. That was our first day of operations after we took over service from the Puget Sound Navigation Company, also called the Black Ball Line. Back then, we were a part of the Washington Toll Bridge Authority under the Director of Highways.

Memorial Day weekend ridership

Over Memorial Day weekend, May 21-25, we carried 354,325 riders across our system. That’s 52,000 riders more than the previous Thursday through Monday, May 14-18. Thanks to the hard work of employees, we completed 99.3% of our 2,229 scheduled sailings during the busy holiday travel period. We had 16 cancellations total. Of those, six were due to schedule resets, four were caused by vessel-related issues, four were due to crewing challenges and two were for other miscellaneous reasons. I thank everyone who helped keep service running. Our dispatchers worked hard to fill crew relief requests and keep vessels staffed. Our vessel teams also responded quickly when repairs were needed. I’m proud of the service we provided together.

As expected, Saturday had the highest daily ridership of the holiday weekend with 89,008. It was our busiest day so far this year, followed by 83,930 on Sunday and 78,407 on April 25. Saturday also had the largest daily ridership since Aug. 23, 2025, showing that we have clearly entered our peak travel season.

Recap of Tuesday’s online community meetings

Thanks to the nearly 150 people who joined our two online community meetings on Tuesday. I opened each meeting with good news about the progress we’ve made rebuilding and strengthening our workforce over the past few years. We’ve hired, trained and promoted many licensed and unlicensed crew members, helping reduce retirement risks in our most senior positions. At both meetings, we also shared updates on our updated Service Contingency Plan, summer service, planning for the 2026 men’s soccer world championship, our revised pet policy, and work to build new vessels and install vessel charging infrastructure at our terminals. The rest of the time was dedicated to answering questions from the audience. If you missed the meetings, recordings are available on our community participation page.

I provided a quick summary at the beginning of yesterday’s public meeting, along with several directors. Most of the time was spent answering questions from attendees.

Sailing stats for week of May 18-24

For the week of May 18-24, our systemwide on-time performance (sailings that left within 10 minutes of their scheduled departure) was 83.3%. By comparison, it was 82.3% during a similar week last year (May 19-25, 2025). To view our on-time performance by month going back to 2017, visit our on-time performance reports page.

Customer kudos

“My mom fell while we were waiting for the Kingston ferry today, and the WSDOT employees were so helpful and amazing. Thank you so much for employing such caring people! One gentleman helped her get a scooter to our car so we made the ferry. We so appreciate it! I’m so sorry I don’t remember his name.”

-Edmonds/Kingston route customer