WASHINGTON — Over the past 24 hours, multiple ferry routes have been impacted by mechanical and staffing issues.
The Seattle to Bainbridge route was down to one boat Tuesday due to unexpected boat maintenance and two other routes were impacted Wednesday by staffing issues. Those same issues have posed challenges all year, causing the ferries to be unreliable.
“It's been crewing concerns, a lack of crew, and we're also dealing with a lack of vessels,” said Justin Fujioka, a spokesperson for Washington State Ferries.
The San Juan interisland ferry was down most of the day Tuesday and the Point Defiance to Tahlequah route missed two round-trip sailings Wednesday morning due to staffing.
“We are funded for the minimum required by the Coast Guard crew members per boat. So just one crew member not showing up, we can’t safely sail,” Fujioka said.
Fujioka said ideally they should have 26 ferries in their fleet, but the current number is only 21. Many times, not all of those boats are running due to maintenance issues, causing service to be minimized and less reliable.
“It’s a difficult situation that we're in right now,” Fujioka said. “We are not completely back to what our pre-pandemic schedules were.”
In 2024 they hope to keep improving their staffing levels but say it won't be until around 2028 that they start to see new vessels.
“We're hopeful that things will get better in the next year, crewing-wise,” Fukioka said. “But as far as vessels, that's a couple of years down the road before we get a new vessel. It takes time to build a vessel.”