Lynne Griffith, the leader of the state’s ferry system, announced her retirement Monday after two years in the position.

Griffith, 67, joined the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) as assistant secretary for the ferries division in September 2014. In a statement from Ferries on Monday, she said she will retire from public service at the end of January. Ferries division Chief of Staff Elizabeth Kosa, who has served alongside Griffith, will act as Ferries’ leader while next steps are finalized.

According to the WSF statement, during Griffith’s time at the helm of the nation’s largest ferry system, missed sailings due to lack of crew dropped nearly 70 percent over the previous 26-month period. She also secured funding for a fourth 144-car Olympic Class ferry, the Suquamish, which will serve the Mukilteo-Clinton route starting in May 2019.

“Lynne has brought profound change to an organization which is a treasured icon of our great state of Washington,” Governor Jay Inslee said in the statement.

But while Ferries is moving forward through the construction of new boats and less missed sailings, her retirement comes at a contentious time for those who are served by the triangle route between Fauntleroy, Southworth and Vashon. At the end of October, Griffith accompanied other Ferries officials for “listening meetings” in the three communities. The route had a tough summer with boats running late and, on many occasions, boats leaving half-empty with cars still left on the dock. The practice — which Ferries’ said was done in an effort to stay on-schedule — infuriated commuters who wrote to Griffith demanding a change. Comments from those meetings have been compiled on the WSF website, and a task force is supposed to be created before the end of January 2017.

According to the Kitsap Sun, Griffith had planned to retire at the end of 2014 after working as Pierce Transit’s chief executive officer, but changed her mind and took on the ferries after a highly-publicized issue with the Cathlamet on the Bremerton-Seattle route.

“An overloaded Cathlamet was forced back to the Bremerton dock to remove riders, only to discover later it wasn’t too full after all. The … debacle caused Griffith to change her mind,” the Kitsap Sun reports.

Griffith intends to move to the East Coast to be closer to her family.