How realistic is Washington State Ferries' contingency plan for aging fleet, staffing issues?

WASHINGTON — The big questions coming out of Washington State Ferries (WSF) releasing a new contingency plan are, who’s to blame, how will they fix it, and how long will it really take?

The problems with the state ferry system are nothing new. The system’s been running under-staffed with a fleet of aging vessels for years, causing lists of late departures and canceled sailings.

WSF released its "Long Range Plan" back in 2019, so how is it that now almost five years later and the system’s still struggling?

“Yeah, so we have laid out our plan and pitched that to the legislative folks in Olympia and started to make real progress on that, something happened between 2019, that big wrench and everyone’s plans so we don’t want to just blame the pandemic but that’s certainly something that came into effect,” said Ian Sterling, spokesperson for WSF.

So now, the state’s got this new contingency plan that takes the fleet down to a basic baseline of boats to stretch across its routes. WSF said it needs 19 boats to run throughout its busy summer season, 18 during the spring and fall shoulder seasons, and 17 throughout the winter. But this new contingency plan takes the fleet down to 15 boats to run all the routes, increasing to 17 during peak times.

RELATED | Washington State Ferries plans for reduced service amid lack of vessels and crew

“The good news here is that every single domestic ferry route is operational. Does it have the same level of service before the pandemic? No, it doesn’t, and it’s not realistic to think that’s going to recover anytime soon without the proper boats to be able to provide the service,” said Sterling.

The state has not allocated money for five new boats and has authorized WSF to look for a boat builder outside the state. KOMO News asked Sterling if they have a list of potential boat builders to work with.

“Yeah so one of the issues we ran into is we weren’t able to come to terms with the boat builder that we’ve used most recently in the past,” said Sterling.

Retired state ferry worker Charles Prestrud, who also helped write the system's long range plan, told KOMO News an executive order got in the way.

“Governor Inslee’s executive order in 2018 that directed the ferry system to transition to a zero emissions fleet that really meant that they weren’t going to have enough new ferries for quite a few years,” said Prestrud.

Democratic Sen. Mark Liias told KOMO News he would love to promise getting boats faster, but realistically, he said new boats won't come before 2027. Sterling told KOMO News it could even take until 2028.

RELATED | Ferry operators around the country to receive $200M in federal grants to modernize fleets

“I would love to say the state has a magic wand to solve this tomorrow. As a fellow family who lives on an island, I'm acutely aware of our ferry system challenges,” said Gov. Jay Inslee, just hours before WSF released its new contingency plan.

The governor was discussing budget and the state’s new legislative session, when he also said, “the state should do everything humanly possible to restore more reliable service on our boats, everything humanly possible as quickly as humanly possible.”

But the reality stands that you can’t build boats overnight, nor can the system hire and train workers, which takes months and even years depending on the U.S. Coast Guard certification required to work on a state ferry. But did it really need to reach this point?

“The ferry system knew they had a looming retirement tidal wave coming even before COVID hit. But the governor issued an executive order mandating vaccinations for all state employees and a lot of senior ferry system employees chose not to get vaccinated and they were either dismissed or forced into retirement. There were 132 ferry system employees and since they were already barely able to crew all of the positions it met, they were going to be short-staffed for quite a few years,” said Prestrud.

KOMO News asked Sterling, what does it take to get people to come to work at state ferries?

“Wages obviously is one of those things we have a tough time competing with the for-profit companies. We just can’t pay as much as the container ship companies or the oil taker companies can pay, but you do get to sleep in your own bed by and large every night, if you’re working at State ferries,” said Sterling.

“Well, the ferry system is doing a lot of things to try and recruit more people, but there’s a limited number of people who have the kind of skills and credentials,” said Prestrud.

So, as a retired ferry worker, KOMO News asked Prestrud if he thought there were any solutions that could be put into practice now to help the system.

“Well, I wish there were any quick and simple solutions but there aren’t. I think if the ferry system decided to purchase more conventional diesel-powered ferries they were discovered that they could get those built quicker and it much lower cost,” said Prestrud.