WSF Weekly Report | Memorial Day traffic, transportation budget, virtual community meetings

||| FROM PATTY RUBSTELLO for WASHINGTON STATE FERRIES |||

Memorial Day weekend ferry travel

People boarding a ferry in a vehicle over Memorial Day weekend should plan for long waits. The busiest sailings will be westbound (or onto an island) Thursday through Saturday, May 25-27, and eastbound (or off island) Saturday through Monday, May 27-29. Wait times are much shorter for early morning and late-night sailings. Holiday sailings are marked on the sailing schedules for each route.

There is plenty of walk-on capacity on all our sailings with minimal to no wait. People who ride bicycles or motorcycles can also skip the vehicle line.

Before heading to a terminal or boarding, customers are encouraged to sign up for rider alerts and check terminal conditions. We also offer vehicle reservations on our Anacortes/San Juan Islands and Port Townsend/Coupeville routes. People using state highways to get to the ferry terminal should plan for potential holiday travel backups and delays. Real-time traffic information is available on the WSDOT traffic app for mobile devices or online using the updated WSDOT travel map feature.

Governor signs 2023-2025 transportation budget

Gov. Jay Inslee signed the 2023-2025 state budgets last week. More than $500 million of the transportation budget will go to capital investments, including continued funding to electrify our ferry system. The budget also includes an increase in funding to help stabilize operations with investments in our workforce that help advance staff to licensed positions, create scholarships and reduce barriers to entry for deck and engine room crew. We also received funding to help increase vessel maintenance by adding a new second shift at our Eagle Harbor Maintenance Facility, project controls and additional apprenticeships.

Series of virtual community meetings begins

This week, we kicked off our spring series of virtual community meetings with our local Ferry Advisory Committees. On Tuesday evening, we hosted 65 participants interested in topics specific to our Mukilteo/Clinton and Port Townsend/Coupeville routes. We have five more public meetings, including the Seattle/Bainbridge meeting tonight. Participants will be able to ask questions and provide comments. Advanced registration is required for each 6 p.m. meeting. The day after each meeting, a video recording will be available online on our community participation webpage.

“[…] My friend & I came to Seattle for her first chemo appointment at UW. After the infusion we went to take the Bremerton ferry home but it was full so we were rerouted to the Southworth ferry. We had never taken this ferry […]. What an angel the employee [Tiffany True] was! As soon as she realized we had paperwork from the doctor she explained that there was actually a process for chemo patients with the ferries. We had no idea. She was truly amazing and helpful and kind and compassionate and we could not thank her enough.”

-Fauntleroy/Southworth customer