SEATTLE — A network outage affected Washington State Ferries’ (WSF) entire electronic fare system Thursday, causing delays at ticketing booths.
The outage has been resolved, and all systems were back up and running by noon. Virus protection software flagged a file that runs point-of-sale software as a potential virus, which caused the outage. The file wasn't a virus, and WSF found a workaround to get all systems working again.
State ferries announced the outage at 4:10 a.m., saying it affected all routes and causing some ferries to run behind schedule. Terminal staff had to rely on backup transaction methods as a result. This included writing down credit card sales and accepting cash, WSF said.
Along with the technical problems, the Mukilteo/Clinton and Bainbridge/Seattle routes were down to one boat.
"Added to the one boat service, it was a double whammy this morning," said Nancy Schars, who lives on Bainbridge Island and said she left at 5:30 a.m. to catch the 6:20 a.m. ferry. "I had a 9:30 doctors appointment and made it by twenty minutes. So that was frustrating."
"It's kind of frustrating trying to plan to go over to Seattle which is only 35 minutes but sometimes you have to wait two hours to go over by boat," said Cory Miller, a ferry passenger.
The network outage came as state ferries have been plagued by staffing shortages, delays and cancelations due to boat maintenance and other disruptions.
In October, engine failure took the Chimacum ferry out of service indefinitely. The state’s ferry system is the largest fleet of its kind in the country with 21 vessels. However, the loss of the Chimacum dropped the number of available ferries currently in service for WSF to 14.
In November, a cyberattack made portions of the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) website unavailable, including ferry schedules and terminal cameras. WSDOT said the attack appeared to be aimed at interrupting the flow of travel-related information.
Governor Jay Inslee announced his proposed 2024 supplemental budget Wednesday and in it plans to put more money toward Washington State Ferries. The state is working toward adding its first hybrid vessel to the fleet next year and is expecting the first fully-electric ferry to sail by 2027.
State Senator Ron Muzall, who represents Island, Skagit and Snohomish counties said the state needs a faster solution.
"Let's build some diesel ferries that will get people from point A to point B and lets worry about this hybrid ferry in the future when we're not caught in a situation where we don't have enough boats to take care of what we need to do," said Muzall.
You can check the real-time status of ferry routes, arrival times and departure times on WSDOT's website at wsdot.com/ferries. You can also subscribe to receive alerts from WSDOT on the status of ferries on their website.