Washington State Ferries has been hosting two systemwide community meetings a year. This year, they added a third; if you missed the first session today, an identical session is set for 6 pm tomorrow.

We monitored the first one at noon today to get toplines from the WSF executives’ presentation and hear what people were asking about.

Toward the start, WSF’s Hadley Rodero, facilitating, polled the 125+ attendees to see what routes they generally use. Mukilteo-Clinton was the top response, at 29 percent, followed by Seattle-Bremerton at 18 percent, with Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth at only 8 percent, so there weren’t a lot of questions about the Triangle Route. But here’s what caught our attention otherwise:

STAFF SHORTAGE EBBING? System boss Steve Nevey decclared, “We’re well on our way to resolving our personnel issues.” Exactly how they’re doing that was described throughout the meeting in a variety of ways large and small, all the way to hosting high-school students to try to impress on them that it’s “cool” to work on a ferry. The system had 13 engine-room interns this year, noted WSF’s Nicole McIntosh, saying that 9 of them became employees.

VESSEL SHORTAGE: That will take longer to resolve, but they’re working toward finding a builder for new ferries, with about 12 companies around the country indicating initial interest, and the review of “pre-qualification” submissions imminent. Paying for them might become an issue if Initiative 2117 – repealing the state’s Climate Commitment Act – is passed in the general election; one attendee asked in Q&A if the CCA funded any of the new ferries and Nevey said about 25 percent of the cost was expected to come from that source. Another attendee asked about the “bonus boat” (aka “ghost boat”) on the Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth and asked why that “unscheduled” third boat couldn’t just be plugged into the full three-boat Triangle Route schedule. WSF’s John Vezina explained that the Triangle Route schedule is meant for three Issaquah-class boats, and the “bonus boat” is usually smaller, so it wouldn’t be able to keep up, and instead is being used – seven days a week as of last weekend – to help the other two stay on schedule.

FAUNTLEROY TERMINAL PROJECT: No new information, but WSF’s David Sowers briefly recapped where the project planning stands:

Once a preferred alternative is chosen early next year, the next stage of the planning/design process will take about a year and a half, he said.

RELIABILITY: Systemwide, reliability rose a bit January through August this year compared to last, reported Nevey (no route-by-route breakouts, though):

The presentations took just under half an hour, and the Q&A ran a full hour – mostly issues unrelated to the Triangle Route, so we aren’t noting them here, except for one point of interest: Asked when the ferries might offer wi-fi again, the answer was that they’re “investigating” it, after an unsuccessful test run long ago – Starlink is one of the systems they’re looking at.

Again, you have another chance to listen – and to ask questions – at 6 pm tomorrow (Wednesday, September 25); register here for the link.