||| FROM STEVE NEVEY for WASHINGTON STATE FERRIES |||
A message from Steve
I’m excited to share big news on our journey to build new vessels. This week, Gov. Bob Ferguson announced we will award a contract to Eastern Shipbuilding Group to build our first new hybrid-electric 160-auto ferries. This is a huge step forward in making our system cleaner and more reliable. After a year of competitive bidding, Eastern won with a bid of $714.5 million to build three boats. This doesn’t include approximately $150 million per vessel for owner-furnished equipment and contingencies, bringing the total for the first vessel to $400 million, with the next two costing less as efficiencies are gained.
Now that we have a shipyard, the next step is to finish the design. Eastern will work with our partner ABB to provide the electric engines and make sure everything is built right.
These vessels will first serve our Mukilteo/Clinton, then Seattle/Bremerton routes. When our terminals are ready with charging power, these new ferries will cut emissions by about 90% compared to our older ferries. This helps move us closer to our goal of adding 16 new ferries by 2040 so we can provide better service for our communities.
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Fourth of July holiday ferry travel
The Independence Day ferry travel rush kicked off yesterday with more than 74,000 riders in a single day. By Sunday, July 6, we expect nearly 400,000 people aboard our vessels over the five-day period. To help navigate the extra traffic, we recommend using the WSDOT mobile app. The app and our website show sailing schedules, live terminal conditions and traffic cameras. You can also check rider alerts, track our ferries on a real-time map and make vehicle reservations for our Anacortes/San Juan Islands or Port Townsend/Coupeville runs.
The busiest sailings will be westbound (or onto an island) through Friday, July 4, then eastbound (or off island) Saturday and Sunday, July 5-6. There will be a few schedule changes on the Fourth of July.
For riders on the Port Townsend/Coupeville route, the holiday brings more than fireworks. Starting July 4, we’ll have two boats running every Friday through Monday through Oct. 13. This is the final step in our plan to restore nearly full domestic service – three years earlier than originally planned. We are pleased to have 18 boats in service for what will likely be our busiest ridership weekend of the year. I appreciate our staff’s work over the holiday weekend to provide the best service we can for our riders.
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Daily 3-boat schedule returns to “Triangle” route
The second step in our plan to restore service began on Monday. That’s the day we brought back daily three-boat service on our “Triangle” route. View three-boat schedule for Fauntleroy/Vashon, Fauntleroy/Southworth and Southworth/Vashon. This is great news, but we want to be honest, sometimes, due to a lack of boats or crew, we may still need to go back to our two-boat schedule. If that happens, the “Triangle” route’s new backup schedule (use the drop-down menu at the top to view the other two segments of the route) – created with input from a community advisory group – will be used. Our first step in restoring service was to bring back the two-boat schedule on our Seattle/Bremerton route on June 15.
 Our Fauntleroy/Vashon/Southworth route returned to to a daily three-boat schedule on Monday for the first time since Oct. 2021. |
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Study on passenger-only ferries
We recently released a Passenger-Only Ferry Study (PDF 8.2MB), as required by the state Legislature. The study looked at how the state could add passenger-only ferry service to support current routes and improve travel options. It highlighted two potential routes in Puget Sound (Whidbey Island-Everett and Bellingham-Friday Harbor) and two options for interisland service in the San Juan Islands. The study shared ideas about how these routes could help people get around our waterways without cars and what it would cost to start them. This report will help lawmakers decide what role the state should take in the future of passenger-only ferry service.
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Keep crab pots away from our routes
Ferries and crabbing are both part of summer in the Pacific Northwest. But they don’t go well together in the same waters. Crab pots in ferry lanes can cause damage and delays. They can also be dangerous. Many areas of Salish Sea open for crabbing today or Sunday. If you’re heading out, please keep crab pots away from our routes. For tips on safe and successful crabbing, check out the Northwest Straits Initiative’s tips and tricks. A Department of Fish and Wildlife proposed rule would ban commercial and recreational crabbing, shrimping and fishing with purse seines or gillnets near our terminals. WDFW is asking for public feedback before its hearing on the matter at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 5.
Crab pot line entanglements have led to costly repairs for us and hundreds of canceled sailings for our customers.
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AB to Mate Program graduates work towards license
Twelve of our deck crew members just finished our latest AB to Mate Program. This program helps our employees get the training they need to earn their mate’s license. It gives them a chance to move up to licensed deck officer jobs. These jobs are one of our greatest areas of need. We offer this program with the Maritime Institute of Technology and Graduate Studies. This year’s class was the first that had to take their mate’s license test right after finishing their courses. They worked hard and met the challenge. Seven of them have already passed all their tests. The other five have dates set to take their tests before the end of July. Congratulations!
Our recent AB to Mate Program graduates ([L-R] Donnie Sanders, Mark Freiboth, Mariah Kelly, Collin Brasfield, Andy Brooks, Walter Olson, Peter Schmidt, Christine Cole, Evan Martin, Rafael Roman, Jonathan Bunt and Michael Long) pose for a photo with Director of Fleet Operations Beth Stowell (left), Program Assistant Bahar Suseyi (center), Jay Mortiz, Port Captain Jim Bauer and Deputy Assistant Secretary John Vezina.
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Northwest Maritime’s WA360 boat race
Northwest Maritime is a local group that helps people of all ages learn about life on the water. They do this through hands-on programs and fun events. One way we work with Northwest Maritime is through Maritime High School. This is a free public school where students can learn about jobs on the water, like working on our ferries. This helps us find and inspire future maritime workers. To celebrate the start of Northwest Maritime’s WA360 boat race, we flew special flags on many of our vessels last weekend. The race began in Port Townsend on Saturday. It is a 360-mile race that lasts two weeks. The race will end on Saturday, July 12. Some racers already finished on Tuesday.
 We flew the WA360 flag on many of our ferries last Saturday through Monday to celebrate the start of the boat race. |
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Sailing stats for the week of June 23-29
For the week of June 23-29, we completed 98.7% of our 2,878 scheduled sailings. This figure is separate from on-time performance. Of the 44 cancellations, 18 were due to tidal currents, 13 for schedule resets (when a boat is so far behind schedule, we cancel a sailing to get it back on schedule, providing predictability for customers), nine because of terminal-related issues, three due to vessel-related issues and one for an emergency.
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Customer kudos
“I took the Edmonds 3:15 ferry on 5/23/25. I had just had surgery and quickly boarded with a medical pass. That was so helpful!! The line was crazy long. Mostly, I wanted to share that all of the employees that we interacted with were beyond friendly and helpful. Thank you so much!!!”
-Edmonds/Kingston route customer
**If you are reading theOrcasonian for free, thank your fellow islanders. If you would like to support theOrcasonian CLICK HERE to set your modestly-priced, voluntary subscription. Otherwise, no worries; we’re happy to share with you.**
On the topic of passenger-only ferries, the study about the San Juans-Bellingham route came back as fairly negative because of (a) the lack of multi-modal transportation options, and (b) the transit time required.
Personally, I found (a) laughable, given that Fairhaven station — a local transit and Amtrak hub to Seattle — is a 5 minute walk away (closer than the nearest bus stop is to the Anacortes Ferry landing site). And while I’m not certain that a 50 minute ferry ride to Bellingham would be a make-or-break issue, I did see this — a fully electric 150 passenger ferry that cruises at 34 kts, about to be deployed in production in Ireland (think rough seas!): https://www.artemistechnologies.co.uk/ef-24-passenger-ferry/
Anyone else feel like WSF just doesn’t want to do a passenger-only ferry for the San Juans –perhaps too much of a stretch in charter for them? Read the report for yourself (link below, page 8/ES-1 has the executive summary).
Link to WSF Study: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://wsdot.wa.gov/sites/default/files/2025-06/Washington-State-Ferries-Passenger-Only-Ferry-Study-Final-Report-June2025.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwi1_MKdsqmOAxVLBTQIHVnuOPcQFnoECBgQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1T0FDt3Ylkq_4iadXHC0DE
Several studies have confirmed that passenger-only ferries are a financial loser, especially considering the revenue diversion from existing WSF operations. Like other “nice to have” options, passenger service by itself requires large population bases to come close to penciling, like those from Kitsap County. The San Juans just do not have sufficient numbers of potential users to justify adding service, whether to Bellingham or to Anacortes.
Hi Bob D,
Do you have any links to those studies, and, as a follow-up, would they be any more (or less) of a financial loser than the current WSF car ferries, which I believe are also heavily subsidized (WA taxpayer subsidies include 43% of operational costs, and close to 100% of capital expenses, according to [1])? To be fair, this isn’t meant as a critique, just that data seems to be hard to find, and it would be good to see a critical analysis.
Showing my very rough analysis of a possible option that I was looking at — something along the lines of the 30 person passenger ferry Canada is deploying (the Candera P-12 shuttle) which sells for around $2M [2] (note that’s less than 1% of the cost of just one of the newly funded car ferries[3]). Operational cost data is harder to come by, but some promising signs are 80%+ savings in fuel cost, simpler logistics (less staff needed to load cars, uses the same DCFC infrastructure electric cars use), and crewing efficiencies (it is designed to only require a single crew). All that said, I can imagine that the ratio of operational cost per passenger would be comparable, if not somewhat less, than for car ferries. My intuition is that, at a certain scale, the cost per passenger mile is more a function of occupancy than size; to the extent that’s true, the goal should be to size and price to get to an average of 50%+ occupancy.
On the demand side, how do you think attractiveness of the passenger-only option would be affected *if* the Anacortes ferry dropped passengers off in a more central location, adjacent to a transit hub? Personally, I would go passenger-only much more often, also avoiding the hassle of reservations and allocating 90+ minutes for round trip ferry queuing.
Again, being honest, these are just back of the envelope thoughts and could well be in error, but I’d invite and appreciate a deeper critical analysis. And given that the cost that is quite small compared to the overall WSF spending (WSF could probably purchase a fleet of 10 passenger ferries for a tenth the cost of a single car ferry), it seems like an experiment, or at least a thought exercise, worth considering.
[1] https://wstc.wa.gov/ferry-fares/2023-2025-ferry-fare-setting/
[2] https://www.marinelog.com/news/video-candela-to-start-serial-production-of-30-passenger-foiling-ferry/
[3] https://washingtonstatestandard.com/2025/07/01/washington-state-to-buy-new-hybrid-electric-ferries-from-florida-shipyard/
Fully agree with Bob Distler. Followed the Kitsap Transit passenger ferry creation. Small population base, lack of daily commuters and distances are the three key elements against pax only service. It COULD be done, but significant county tax increase almost certainly required, and the idea of one vessel is illogical … every vessel has to have regular maintenance. It takes a fleet to maintain reliable service.
As an example, discussion with a Kitsap Transit maintenance crew revealed they are getting 5,000-6,000 engine hours out of their dual hulled fast vessels … they were planning on 12,000. Major cost (and time) to replace engines alone.
British Columbia has dozens of relatively short ferry routes in their 6,000+ islands, so comparisons with what can be done there vs. here is not an apples to apples comparison.
End by saying a vessel cost is just a fraction of the cost of running passenger ferry service.