Editor’s Note: Washington State Ferries has changed its December meeting to Dec. 12; this version reflects the correct date.
The comment period for the proposed ferry schedule for the triangle route closed last Friday, with officials from Washington State Ferries (WSF) reiterating that the pendulum schedule will not be considered.
Meanwhile, Rick Wallace and Steve Stockett, advocates of that schedule, vowed to continue their efforts, and the longtime head of the Vashon Ferry Advisory Committee, Greg Beardsley, sent a letter to Ferries raising several concerns about the schedule WSF has proposed.
Wallace, Stockett and Beardsley all indicated they believe the process is rushed and would prefer that Ferries wait on creating a final version of the schedule. Both mentioned the UW Evans School study, indicating its findings could be valuable to setting a new schedule.
Washington State Ferries is now reviewing the comments and will hold a meeting with the Triangle Route Improvement Task Force and the Vashon and Southworth Ferry Advisory Committees from 4:30 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 12, at the Fauntleroy Church in West Seattle. The meeting is open to the public. WSF and the citizen groups will review comments and discuss recommended changes, with the goal of making adjustments to the schedule and finalizing it by the end of December. Implementation of the new schedule is slated for March.
Last week, Washington State Ferries shared a letter it had sent to Stockett, who has been working on the so-called pendulum schedule for more than a year. Stockett and several others on Vashon believe a pendulum schedule would benefit riders in all three communities, providing service from all stops on the route on a 35-minute schedule all day and much of the night.
Ferry officials disagree, stating in the letter they sent, as they did at the open house last month, “It’s simply not a workable concept.”
WSF’s letter cited four problems with the schedule: a gap in Southworth late night service; that it drops one sailing from Fauntleroy between 3 and 7 p.m.; one crew would be required to work more than eight hours, violating a labor agreement, and no crew change was included for one deck crew with no apparent way to add that crew change in.
“Given this, I hope you’ll adhere to your earlier commitment to move on from the pendulum schedule if we reviewed it and found insurmountable obstacles to it being viable,” the letter, written by WSF’s director of government relations, John Vezina, states.
Undeterred, Stockett and Wallace said they plan to continue their efforts — and that they were able to solve the four problems WSF cited with less than an hour of work.
“If the pendulum did not work, we would be looking at a lot more issues than just four,” Wallace said.
In response, the men sent three letters back to Washington State Ferries. One asks for a delay implementation of the new schedule; another addresses the four problems Ferries cited with the pendulum schedule, suggesting solutions for each. The third includes concerns about the proposed WSF schedule. Among their concerns is that several sailings from Fauntleroy in the late morning and early afternoon are scheduled too closely together, with insufficient dwell time and the likelihood of creating a logjam at the fare booth.
They also cite the dropping of six direct sailings from Vashon to Fauntleroy between 11:50 a.m. and 9:55 p.m. This element of the schedule has upset many islanders, particularly regarding evening sailings, which, in addition to being reduced, has two sailings going to Fauntleroy first.
The men also suggest making all after-midnight sailings Vashon-Fauntleroy only and recommend requiring at least some commercial vehicles to travel on these sailings instead of during the day.
On Monday of this week, a flurry of activity took place on Facebook, where Wallace had posted the proposed pendulum schedule.
One person active in Southworth ferry issues stated that it did not serve Southworth because it did not align well with the passenger-only boat. Wallace said he expected that problem could be easily remedied.
Also on Facebook, a representative from Southworth noted concerns from that community about the WSF schedule, such as a gap in mid-day sailings, concerns over allotments and the loss of a late afternoon Southworth-only boat that got many people back to that community by 5 p.m. He noted that he hopes to see some rush hour boats sail to Southworth first, before Vashon.
Meanwhile, Beardsley, who has headed the Vashon Ferry Advisory Committee for at least 15 years, wrote his letter focusing on WSF’s proposed schedule.
Among the concerns he cited are the lack of solutions presented to address ticketing problems at Fauntleroy and that no solution to sort vehicles on Fauntleroy was included.
He added that he believes the pendulum schedule has “great merit.” While not perfect, it has possible advantages for both Southworth and Vashon, he said. But he believes even with that schedule, problems would persist because of the structural problems at the dock.
“I urge WSF to work, not give lip service to, the real problems on the route. Toll collection and holding area being the biggest,” he wrote. “Let’s have a real work plan before rushing this decision. It will not go away by itself.”
