Stranding riders on an island is no way to run WSF

To break up the monotony of COVID in the fall of 2020, my family and I ventured to Friday Harbor, on San Juan Island. During that trip, I fell in love: not only with the beautiful terrain and jaw-dropping wildlife, but also the way time slows down for my family when we are there.

Noticing the lack of primary care services locally and hoping to contribute to the community in some small way, I opened a part-time medical practice in January of this year. Since then, it has been my privilege to serve the children of young, hard-working families living on San Juan Island, other islands in the archipelago, and Anacortes — many of whom rely on the ferry system to go from one place to another. And while many of us are accustomed to boat delays and cancellations in the San Juans, the Memorial Day debacle warrants more discussion.

Washington State Ferries (WSF) is the largest ferry system in the United States. Designated as part of our state highway system, WSF runs 10 routes out of 20 terminals in 8 counties throughout the Puget Sound. In 2016, there were 24 vessels; today, there are just 21 in the fleet. Legislative direction mandates that 19 boats are in service during the summer season, 18 during “shoulder” season, and 17 in the late fall and winter. Two vessels are held out at a time for maintenance, leaving only 19, the bare minimum to run our “marine highway,” a system which transported 5,239,212 riders between January and March 2023.

At a minimum, four boats are required to operate the Anacortes/SJI route at full capacity during the summer. Before the pandemic, five boats were assigned to that route — which included trips to Sidney B.C. — during the busy season. In the past, when a boat broke down, the fifth boat provided back up to avoid service disruption. This redundancy is no longer available.

Operating at the bare minimum means any mechanical problem disrupts service. The oldest boats in the fleet are the Tillikum, the Kaleetan, and the Yakima, two of which were assigned to the San Juan Islands, with the third — built when Lyndon B. Johnson was President — providing relief when the Yakima went out of service last weekend.

Over Memorial Day, Saturday’s cancellations were related to crew shortages on the Anacortes/SJI route. It made matters worse on Sunday, when the Yakima broke down resulting in a half dozen more cancellations. This cascade of events left 99 vehicles, carrying a couple of hundred people, stranded at the Friday Harbor Ferry Terminal overnight, according to John Vezina, Director of Planning, Customer and Government Relations at Washington State Ferries.

To be clear, there are holding lanes in Friday Harbor for waiting cars, but there is no building. The terminal has three parking lots: A, B, and C. There are a few small bathrooms adjacent to lot A, but they are usually locked at night. Thankfully, they were left open during the Memorial Day crunch. The next closest public restroom is on Nichols Street a few blocks away. On Sunday evenings, most local restaurants close early. The main grocery store in town, King’s Market, closes at 9 p.m.

On Monday morning, the Kaleetan — a boat used on the Bremerton, Bainbridge, and Kingston runs — replaced the Yakima as the No. 2 vessel to carry the passengers stuck overnight in Friday Harbor. After sleeping in his car, one traveler told KIRO news, “I’m never leaving land again,” a sentiment that does not bode well for summer tourist season.

If you live in Kitsap County, you might wonder why service disruptions on the San Juan-Anacortes ferry route should matter to you. Because ferry service disruptions hamper access to healthcare, education, jobs, supplies, and families across the entire Puget Sound. They negatively impact local businesses and industries, which reduce revenue for necessary public services, like transportation.

San Juan Island service disruptions will, ultimately, become ours. WSF prioritizes routes based on ridership and the availability of travel alternatives, like roads or bridges. Islanders are completely dependent on ferries to meet their basic needs. If large trucks cannot get to the islands, the shelves of island grocery stores will be empty. Rightly so, the Anacortes/SJI route is the highest priority. It is also the most profitable route in the state where ridership has returned to “pre-pandemic” levels. For routes where ridership bounced back less vigorously — like the Bremerton/Seattle run — the run remains on one-boat service until further notice.

How did we end up here? One place to start is in 1999, when Initiative-695, Tim Eyman’s $30 car tab bill, eliminated the state motor vehicle tax by an average of $142 per registered vehicle. It was estimated that I-695 would reduce state funding for vital public services by up to $1.1 billion in its first biennium, and up to $1.7 billion during the next. Upon implementation, the ferry system lost 25% of its dedicated operating budget and 75% of its dedicated capital budget. Over the next ten years, no new vessels were built. WSF hiked fares dramatically and deferred boat maintenance, with severe consequences.

Today, more than half of the ferries are more than 40 years old. Mechanical unreliability is expected. During the summer of 2022, more than 300 sailings were cancelled, three times the number of cancellations during summer 2021 and seven times that of summer 2020, and no one will forget the Walla Walla losing power and drifting on to a Bainbridge Island beach this spring. This trend is headed in the wrong direction.

So, what can be done? Move Ahead Washington, the $16 billion package passed by legislators in 2022, will fund four new hybrid electric ferries and two conversions of Jumbo Mark II ferries to hybrid electric. However, before any new boats are completed, three more are slated for retirement in 2027.

While WSF searches for solutions, we need to be patient. We should expect more disruptions and holiday weekend catastrophes in the coming years. In the meantime, reach out to WSF and share your thoughts. WSF holds route-specific listening sessions twice a year. I find them helpful and informative. Encourage WSF to hire locally and increase wages to match the cost of living in route-specific locales, especially in the San Juan Islands, where help is needed most. Encourage legislators to support the Washington State Ferry system whenever possible.

Remember, “a rising tide lifts all boats.” Hopefully, even the Yakima.

Dr. Niran Al-Agba is a pediatrician in Silverdale and writes a regular opinion column for the Kitsap Sun. Contact her at niranalagba@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Ferry service problems frustrating riders in Washington State