Staffing at Washington State Ferries (WSF) is climbing, and the agency anticipates a spring 2024 return to the full three-boat schedule on Vashon’s Triangle Route, ferry spokespeople said Oct. 18 at a ferry advisory committee (FAC) meeting.
The committee met at the Vashon-Maury Island Land Trust Building, where WSF employees reviewed the current service restoration plan and creative ideas to improve ferry service.
Restoring the Triangle
The Triangle Route remains in stage 2 of 4 in WSF’s restoration process — “alternative service.” The next step is “trial service” to see if the route can reliably handle three boats and then “restored service” afterward, at which point the route is restored.
Ridership on the Triangle has stayed roughly level since 2021, according to WSF data. It still hasn’t reached its 2019 peak nor its 2020 valley. Tahlequah ridership has stayed consistent since 2019 (except, of course, during 2020), and this year is trending higher than average since COVID — which could be indicative of some ferry riders choosing the relative stability of that route compared to the Triangle.
WSF reduced the Triangle Route, which connects the north end of Vashon to Fauntleroy on the east and Southworth on the west, to a two-boat schedule in fall 2021 due to a system-wide staffing crisis.
In January 2023, ferry officials had anticipated the three-boat schedule would return “within the next few months,” later pushing that restoration estimate to May. By August of this year, WSF estimated a return in early 2024. Staff said at the Oct. 18 meeting that they’re now looking at spring 2024.
Until then, WSF does not plan to rewrite the two-boat schedule, said Hadley Rodero, WSF Community and External Relations Manager. Schedule-writing is a long-term process and one hampered by the fact that since June, the WSF’s single position for planning schedules has been vacant. They’re advertising the job, Rodero said, but it’s a niche role that few people have the skills to take on.
The challenges the state ferries face have long been known, WSF staff said during a presentation: Not enough staff, not enough boats.
“Currently crewing is probably our biggest constraint, though vessels is right behind there in [terms of] service restoration,” said Rachel Dean, WSF FAC liaison and legislative analyst.
Six of WSF’s vessels are out for maintenance right now, Dean said.
Creative solutions
In the meantime, WSF offered some bright spots for the day-to-day of ferry travel.
More than 200 students commute daily from Seattle to the Vashon School District, and they don’t always get to school on time via the 7:40 a.m. Fauntleroy sailing. WSF has been working with parents to get students on an earlier, “unpublished” 7:25 a.m. sailing, generally meant for hazmat traffic, when possible to get them to class, Rodero said.
Those hazmat trips are unpublished sailings typically set aside to transport material without any passengers. When possible, WSDOT spokesperson Justin Fujioka said, WSDOT will try to get students aboard those trips so that they can make the 8:15 a.m. bell.
“If there are no hazardous materials to transport, we will transport passengers on these sailings,” Fujioka wrote in an email. “However, it’s a ‘bonus’ and not included on the regular ferry schedule or guaranteed.”
Additionally, WSDOT has recently been able to fill more shifts for an off-duty law enforcement officer to provide traffic control at the Fauntleroy terminal in the peak morning and afternoon travel periods.
“Due to staffing shortages with local law enforcement (i.e., Seattle Police) it’s been hard to fill the shifts sometimes,” Fujioka wrote. “The traffic control helps ensure smooth loading and unloading of the ferry and helps improve safety with the intersection of the terminal and Fauntleroy Way Southwest.”
Staffing investments
Staffing is improving — slowly.
As of Aug. 31 — the most recent data available — WSF has 187 captains and mates out of the 200 it’s aiming for across all its routes. That’s a 7.5% increase since Jan. 1, 2023, WSF said.
The ferry system has 517 out of 546 unlicensed deck employees (3% increase since Jan. 1), 180 out of 200 licensed engineers, like chief and assistant engineers (2.7% decrease), and 212 out of 202 oilers (unlicensed engineers) (9.3% increase); the latter category being the only in which WSF has achieved more than enough crew.
For the most part, those numbers are increasing. The decrease in high-level engineers is largely due to retirements, Dean said.
WSF also laid out more than $18 million dollars from the state legislature of new funding for workforce development programs. The money goes toward bringing more crew on the ferries and for maintenance work on the ferries currently out-of-service.
“This is all new funding since 2022,” Rodero said. “The legislature has really stepped up. … It’s not an immediate fix … but this is all building the pipeline both to crew availability metric and also vessel [maintenance].”
$756,000 in a new mate scholarship will help applicants attend maritime school in Seattle, and an $8.1 million boon to the “AB to Mate” program will help promote crewmembers to pilot positions.
“They have to do a big test at the end where they get a blank map of Puget Sound, and they have to freehand draw every shoal, obstacle, anything that they could run into, because they have to know the Puget Sound like the back of their hand,” Dean said.
Another $1.07 million will fund the engine room wiper program; $6.6 million will go toward the maintenance facility’s second shift, and $1.02 million will go toward maintenance facility apprenticeships; $1.07 million will go toward general workforce development and cultural development at WSF; and $93,000 was set aside for reimbursing housing and Transportation Worker Identification Credentials (TWICS) for those applying for work with WSF.
That’s a big deal, Hirsch said, because new TWICS — required by the Coast Guard for anyone working on the ferries or terminals — can run more than $125. All told, the credentials needed to start that work can cost more than $400 total, Dean said.
These programs will all take time, WSF acknowledged, and they can’t afford to take their foot off the gas.
“The projections show we’re going to need about 107 new mates over the next five years, based on retirements and the aging workforce and other attrition,” Rodero said. “So it’s working for the short-term but these are all sort of long-term programs that we need the funding to maintain.”
