Washington State Ferries is celebrating a record summer season as the number of delays and cancellations has dropped drastically.
This comes after years of issues plaguing ferry service and impacting passengers.
Earlier this year, Governor Bob Ferguson invested $28 million in state funding to WA State Ferries.
Right now, Jenna Forty with WSF said at least one ferry is out of service due to issues, but officials say they are overall seeing fewer cancellations and delays, and that is a win.
In March, Governor Ferguson announced he was set on fixing the frustration with the Washington State ferry system.
“They want to see we’re making every effort to prioritize this and move faster and quicker to address the challenge. If we can do that, we can restore trust in the system,” Ferguson said.
In recent years, much of the fleet was often out of service for repairs or a lack of crew.
He pledged millions in extra funding. Forty tells us it’s paying off.
“Last summer, we had around 600 sailings cancelled due to a lack of crew. This summer we only saw 191 cancellations,” Forty said.
Right now, 17 out of 21 boats in the fleet are running routes.
“The one exception is because of an engine incident with the Suquamish last week, we had to stop two boat services on Port Townsend Coupeville,” Forty said.
The new electric ferry, the Wenatchee, is also out of service for planned work.
“We expect it to be back in the coming days,” added Forty.
She said the summer rush went better than expected because of Ferguson’s commitment to the ferries.
“Essentially, we added 4,000 sailings over the summer season, we had a half million additional riders during that time,” Forty said.
They hope that as the system improves, more people will enjoy what the ferries have to offer.
“All of our destinations are equally as good in the fall and winter as they are in the summer, and less crowds, so perhaps a more enjoyable experience,” said Forty.
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