WSF Weekly Report | Labor Day; sea level rise; new director of marine operations

||| FROM WASHINGTON STATE FERRIES |||

A message from John

As we head into Labor Day weekend, I thank our employees for their hard work and dedication. There’s a lot of pressure to keep our customers moving during our busiest stretch of the year. Their commitment to service, showing up every day, has made this our busiest summer since 2019. Another reason we’re seeing increased ridership is Governor Bob Ferguson. His leadership and support allowed us to add back boats on our Seattle/Bremerton, Fauntleroy/Vashon/Southworth and Port Townsend/Coupeville routes early in the peak season. Since 2019, there have only been eight days when ridership topped 90,000. Seven of those happened over the past few months. We thank Governor Ferguson for helping us provide more service when we needed it most. 

The busiest Labor Day weekend sailings will likely be westbound (or onto an island) today through Saturday, Aug. 30, then eastbound (or off island) Saturday, Aug. 30, through Monday, Sept. 1.

Nearly 400,000 people are expected to ride our ferries today through Monday, Sept. 1. The Labor Day weekend travel crowds will mean longer vehicle boarding lines and wait times. Before arriving at terminals, consider downloading and using the WSDOT mobile app or visit our website. You can check live terminal conditions and traffic cameras. You can also read rider alerts for service updates, see a real-time map showing each ferry’s location and make vehicle reservations for our Anacortes/San Juan Islands and Port Townsend/Coupeville routes. On Labor Day, Sept. 1, there will be a few sailing adjustments. These holiday changes are marked online on each schedule by route.

Learning about sea level rise at Bremerton terminal

New infographics about sea level rise are up inside our Bremerton ferry terminal overhead walkway. Hyla School students partnered with EcoAdapt to create the visual, similar to the ones currently posted at the Bainbridge Terminal. They were designed to help customers waiting in line learn about the effects of sea level rise. We’re glad to support this important awareness effort about how sea level rise could impact our ferry system. Take a look the next time you’re on the route!

The infographic on the walkway’s north side is designed to spark riders’ curiosity and direct them to a website to learn more about sea level rise.

New Director of Marine Operations

Last Monday was the first day for our new Director of Marine Operations, Dirk van der Raadt. He brings nearly 20 years of experience leading maritime operations and safety programs in large, complex organizations. Dirk has worked with teams on staffing, compliance, and emergency readiness, and has helped shape policies and practices to keep operations reliable and safe. He has also served as incident commander during emergencies. The WSF executive team is excited for the safety-first, people-centered leadership Dirk brings to Marine Operations and to the communities we serve.

Dirk also spent several years at sea as a nautical deck and safety officer at Holland America Line, so he understands what our crews deal with every day.

Sailing stats for week of Aug. 18-24

For the week of August 18 –24, we completed 98.88% of our 3,124 scheduled sailings. This figure is separate from on-time performance. Of the 38 cancellations, 21 were due to schedule resets (when a boat is so far behind schedule, we cancel a sailing to get it back on schedule, providing predictability for customers), 8 were due to tidal currents, 4 were due to crewing, 4 were due to vessel-related issues, and one was due to other miscellaneous reasons.

For comparison, during a similar period last year (August 19–25, 2024), we completed 98.02% of our 2,829 scheduled sailings. Of the 58 cancellations, 25 were due to schedule resets, 16 were due to crewing, 9 were due to other miscellaneous reasons, and 8 were due to tidal currents.

Customer kudos

“An agent at the call center went out of her way to look into the current process for livestock transportation options from SJI to the mainland.  She did the research, got the answer and phoned us up several days later with the results. That is primo customer support”

Anacortes/San Juan Islands route customer