The triangle route serving Fauntleroy, Vashon and Southworth will not return to its full-service schedule until after the first of the year, ferry officials announced at a virtual community meeting on June 7.

This news will be on the agenda of the Ferry Advisory Committee meeting on June 28, with islanders encouraged to attend.

The delay of the third vessel means the route will continue on the reduced two-boat schedule Washington State Ferries (WSF) implemented in the fall of 2021 when facing a system-wide staffing crisis.

The delay is also a departure from what ferry officials first announced would happen at a ferry meeting in January.

At that time, WSF Assistant Secretary Patty Rubstello announced that the third boat would return “within the next few months,” as both staffing and vessel availability allowed.

On February 28, WSF announced that trials for the restoration of the three-boat system would begin in late April — a date later pushed to “sometime in May.”

But on April 25, ferry officials delayed that plan again, putting off the trials for the vessel’s return “for the foreseeable future.”

John Vezina, WSFs director of planning, customer and government relations, provided the latest unwelcome update about a half hour into the June 7 meeting, which drew approximately 70 people, with more than 70% from Vashon.

“It now looks unlikely that we will be able to restore … the triangle route until early next year,” Vezina said.

Vezina and Rubstello both cited staffing levels as being among WSF’s top challenges to restoring service system-wide, along with vessel availability. In particular, Rubstello noted WSF is short licensed deck officers, a position that takes considerable time to develop and train.

WSF needs 200 licensed deck officers to provide full, reliable service, and now it has almost 170 able to work as captains and mates. Additional licensed deck officers are expected to finish a course at the end of the year, helping to ease the shortage.

After the spring delay of the third vessel, Vezina said WSF officials anticipated its summer return. But the night before the June 7 meeting, they reviewed staffing again and arrived at the 2024 projection.

Revising the current two-boat schedule to improve it is not an option, Vezina said, as there is not enough planning staff to do so.

However, to help ease the challenges until full service can be restored, Vezina said WSF is considering adding a third unscheduled vessel to the route as staffing and vessel availability allows. That vessel would do clean up on the route and help the scheduled vessels stay on time. When this unscheduled, unannounced vessel would run – and Vezina noted it would not be every day – it would provide more service, but could also mean:

• Seeing unscheduled sailings arrive and depart, and possibly not filled to capacity.
• Waiting offshore to allow the scheduled boat to unload first and stay on schedule.
• Loading on an earlier sailing but stopping first at a different terminal than your destination.

Nearly all attendees at the virtual meeting responded to a Zoom poll about the third boat idea, with 12% voting to keep the current two-boat schedule and 88% voting to attempt adding the third boat when possible.

Responding to queries from The Beachcomber last week, Vezina said that WSF does not yet have a third boat available to add the unscheduled service to the route. Nor does it have a timeframe for adding it.

“As we stated in the public meeting, it will happen when we have the boat and the crewing available, which may be rarely,” he said in an email.

Vashon’s Ferry Advisory Committee (FAC) member Wendy Aman called the recent schedule revelation from WSF “beyond disappointing.”

She urged islanders to attend the Vashon’s FAC’s June 28 meeting in person or via Zoom and to speak up to their elected officials.

“WSF designed a Service Restoration Plan that has restored service to certain ‘prioritized’ communities, but left Vashon to flounder in a two-boat schedule that has numerous gaps and scheduling issues. Vashon needs to voice our displeasure to our state legislators, the Governor’s office and to the management at WSF,” she wrote in an email.

Aman acknowledged that while WSF is developing programs to ramp up its workforce to pre-COVID levels, “the triangle route is still left with canceled ferries, extreme wait times and a reliability rating hovering at 76%.”

At a minimum, she said, she hopes the Vashon FAC and islanders will be able to “encourage” WSF to develop a revised two-boat schedule that can effectively serve the triangle route until the return of three-boat service.

“We must all become advocates and make our voice heard,” she added.

FAC member Justin Hirsch responded similarly to The Beachcomber about this latest WSF news.

“We absolutely cannot accept reduced service as the new normal,” he said in an email last week.

He acknowledged that we know that the WSF is struggling and needs a secure permanent funding source, noting that that is a problem that needs to be solved at the state level before service would improve.

“In the meantime,” he added, “we need to keep pushing for service restoration as soon as possible and an expanded Fauntleroy Terminal. Both of those issues are important on their own and will let Legislators and the WSF know that we as citizens and voters are focused on these issues.”

According to WSF, the restoration of ferry routes in its system has been prioritized “based on ridership, service performance, availability and directness of travel alternatives, and vessel and crew availability.”

Four routes, now fully restored, were prioritized ahead of Fauntleroy/Vashon/Southworth: Anacortes/San Juan Islands, Seattle/Bainbridge, Mukilteo/Clinton, and Edmonds/Kingston.

According to Vashon Fire Chief Matt Vinci, the delays in the restoration of ferry service to Vashon continue to have serious consequences for the island.

“The news of another significant delay in the three-boat service is very frustrating as it compounds the issues that we continue to experience with providing emergency services on the island,” said Vinci. “Islanders are doing their part to provide fire and emergency medical service resources with considering a fire levy lid-lift on August 1 — it’s time for WSF to do its part and restore the three-boat service soon.”

Amy Drayer, executive director of the Vashon Chamber of Commerce, also detailed the severe economic impacts of the continued lack of adequate ferry service.

“Ferries aren’t just about tourism, Drayer said. “Visitorship is vital for a lot of business, absolutely. But the economic impacts to Vashon are broad and deep. They also hit businesses that serve full-time residents. It’s not just the cost of transportation. It’s the basic availability of goods and services. It’s workforce availability across a broad spectrum. Businesses on the island run at tight margins. Inadequate transportation infrastructure at this level — a gap this big in a core public service — can mean that keeping the doors open isn’t just hard, it’s impossible.”

The next Vashon Ferry Advisory Committee will take place at 7 p.m. Wednesday, June 28, at the Land Trust Building or via Zoom. To obtain the Zoom link, contact vashonvac@gmail.com.

View the WSF’s June 7 virtual meeting at tinyurl.com/ycxafuh6.

— Susan Riemer is a former editor of The Beachcomber. Elizabeth Shepherd contributed reporting to this article.