New leader announced for Washington State Ferries: Amy Scarton

Still a few things to catch up on from yesterday’s very busy news day – and here’s one. With Lynne Griffith retiring at the end of the month as the head of Washington State Ferries, her successor has been announced. Amy Scarton is WSDOT’s assistant secretary for Community and Economic Development and will become assistant secretary for WSF next month. The news release quotes state Transportation Secretary Roger Millar as saying, “Amy’s national experience managing programs and projects across all transportation modes, combined with the top-notch crews, will help ensure the ferry division remains on course.” That experience includes, WSDOT says:

… senior roles in both the Obama and Bush administrations at U.S. Department of Transportation; legal counsel to former Chairman James Oberstar of the U.S. House of Representatives Highway and Transit Subcommittee; and managing the WSDOT offices that support the agencies’ rail, freight, aviation, local programs, planning, and public transportation activities.

Scarton takes over at a time when major initiatives include figuring out how to solve recurring problems with the Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth route; formation of a task force is one of the next announced steps.

Sheila G January 18, 2017 (12:29 pm)

Is there any chance of running the Vashon ferry directly to the Colman Terminal, instead of mucking up all the traffic in West Seattle?

22blades January 18, 2017 (2:41 pm)

I think that would be a difficult idea. The terminal area infrastructure has always been beyond capacity. Then there would be the funding source issue for improvements along with a yet to be finalized vision of the whole waterfront. That’s alot on the plate.

In the meantime, they’re still building in WS with, still, two roads out of town.

All the easy answers are gone…

zephyr January 18, 2017 (4:39 pm)

Sheila G., do you realize that this is not just the “Vashon” Ferry, but also the ferry to and from the Kitsap Peninsula? Many eastbound drivers and passengers are not headed into Seattle, but also east and south throughout our region. Plus there is traffic coming from many other directions headed in the opposite way to the Kitsap, the Olympic Peninsula and Vashon. Directing all ferry traffic into and out of downtown would be an enormous disservice to these routes of travel. Again, the Vashon service is just one piece of this puzzle.

JL January 18, 2017 (9:55 pm)

I wonder if WSDOT has considered negotiating with the Port to use part of terminal 5 for the ferry dock for Vashon, Southworth, to replace Fauntleroy.

Seaweed January 19, 2017 (10:03 am)

Like the idea, but wonder how to manage the traffic flow in and out of. It’s a cluster “f” down there now as it is. Certainly, it would be a more appropriate venue for those stupidly loud motorbikes. How can someone want to make so much crap noise so early in any morning?

Sorry, comment time is over.