Washington State Ferries ran three boats on the Triangle Route for much of the day, attempting to accommodate Vashon Island’s biggest event of the summer, the Strawberry Festival, but a crew shortage has struck again and the run will be down to one boat – here’s the alert WSF sent:

Due to a shortage of crew, the 3rd vessel on the Fauntleroy/Vashon/Southworth has tied up for the evening. The #2 Kitsap will go out of service following the 5:20 p.m. sailing from Fauntleroy to Vashon, which puts the route on one-boat service for the remainder of the day. Customers can expect long waits and delays due to the disruption.

For customers trying to reach Vashon Island, your alternate route is Point Defiance/Tahlequah.

Due to the Vashon Strawberry Festival, we’ll be prioritizing service between Vashon and Fauntleroy. It is highly recommended for Southworth/Fauntleroy customers use Seattle/Bremerton as an alternate route.

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

A matter of time and space dominated the latest meeting of the Community Advisory Group that Washington State Ferries convenes when there’s something new to discuss about planning the Fauntleroy dock expansion/replacement.

In this case, the main agenda item for last night’s online meeting was the analysis of how the various alternative dock size/shapes under consideration (see them here) would affect the time needed for loading/unloading and the space taken up by vehicles queueing along Fauntleroy Way.

From the meeting presentation, here’s where the project planning is now:

WSF has not yet chosen a preferred size/shape alternative. That’s likely to happen next year, and detailed studies will ensue. Still lots to discuss before then – the first five in dark green here are what the group has asked to hear about:

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Another crew shortage has the Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth state-ferry route going down to one boat this evening. Here’s the announcement:

Due to a shortage of crew, the M/V Kitsap will go out of service following its 6:15 p.m. sailing from Fauntleroy to Vashon. The route will continue to operate on one-boat service on the #1 schedule for the remainder of the service day.

This cancels the following sailings:

6:40 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. from Vashon to Southworth
7:05 p.m. and 9:35 p.m. from Southworth to Vashon
7:55 p.m. and 8:50 p.m. Fauntleroy to Vashon

And a reminder that next week, starting Wednesday and lasting for up to two days, the route’s unscheduled third boat will be out of service because of the domino effect from another route losing a boat to maintenance – this too is explained on the WSF bulletins page.

(WSB photo – Fauntleroy dock and ferry at noontime today)

Washington State Ferries has yet another boat in need of repairs, and that’s going to have a domino effect for the Triangle Route and elsewhere – here’s the WSF explanation:

Due to urgent repairs needed, the Walla Walla, the only vessel assigned to the Bremerton/Seattle route, needs to be removed from service for approximately 1-2 days next week. Not doing this work risks a catastrophic failure that could take the vessel out of service for an extended period of time.

To complete these urgent repairs, we need to move vessels around based on capacity and route ridership. We’ll make these moves on Wednesday, July 10 and expect them to last for 1-2 days.

The 144-vehicle Chimacum will move from the Bainbridge route to the Bremerton route, replacing the 188-vehicle Walla Walla.

The 90-vehicle Sealth will move from the Fauntleroy/Southworth/Vashon “Triangle” route to the Bainbridge route. This means we won’t have the third, unscheduled boat on the “Triangle” route during these repairs.

We will return the Chimacum to Bainbridge and the Sealth to the “Triangle” route as soon as we complete the repairs, which we expect to take 1-2 days.

If your holiday evening plans include a trip on the Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth ferry route, take note of this Washington State Ferries announcement:

Due to lack of crew, the last trip for the #2 M/V Kitsap is the 6:15 p.m. Fauntleroy to Vashon, no Southworth traffic will be loaded.

The 6:40 p.m. and 7:05 p.m. Vashon to Southworth and back to Vashon sailings have been cancelled

The M/V Salish will resume the #2 schedule at 7:25 p.m. out of Vashon.

You can check lines via the WSF terminal cams.

No summer hiatus for the Fauntleroy ferry-dock replacement project. It’s still in the planning stage, working toward a decision on the size and shape of the replacement. The project’s Community Advisory Group has been waiting for results of traffic studies, which could show how technology advances in ticketing could affect the vehicle flow – for example, some group members have asked, could the new dock be smaller if Washington State Ferries used Good To Go! electronic passes to eliminate the need for most vehicles to stop at toll booths. That information is expected at the next meeting, just announced for Tuesday, July 16, 6 pm, online (first meeting since March). You can register here to observe; there’s no public-comment period, but you can send feedback any time to FauntleroyTermProj@wsdot.wa.gov. The project’s Technical Advisory Group will be meeting two days later, 1 pm July 18, also online (register here to watch). Construction of the new dock isn’t expected to start before 2027.

(WSB photo: Ferry at Fauntleroy dock, Sunday night)

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Shortages again factored into many explanations at today’s Washington State Ferries systemwide community meeting, first of two online sessions (the second is at 6 pm Tuesday), as they did during the winter meetings.

Shortage of boats and shortage of crew were just two of the shortages mentioned this time, but some things are improving, if slowly, insisted new WSF boss (aka assistant secretary of transportation) Steve Nevey:

(Zoom screengrab of new WSF boss Steve Nevey)

“A year ago, we were in crisis … (now) we’re in recovery.” One example: Two weeks ago, Nevey said, the system had an entire week with no sailing cancellations caused by crew shortages. Overall, according to stats he showed from the first five months of the year, compared to the same time last year, the cancellation trend is down:

Nevey suggested the improvement is likely to continue as extra state funding is about to kick in for scheduling extra crew on boats so that they don’t have to cancel a sailing if someone can’t make it to work. And starting today, while the Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth officially remains on a two-boat schedule, they are adding a “bonus boat” (or “ghost boat”) on weekdays to make unscheduled sailings, helping the regularly scheduled boats stay on time. This is the plan for the “next several months.”

As for the two regularly scheduled boats – during the Q&A that took up more than two-thirds of the meeting, someone asked when the Triangle Route schedule would finally be rewritten, since it’s expected to take a few more years for the third boat to permanently return. That’s where another shortage came in: WSF executive John Vezina explained that WSF still hasn’t been able to hire a new service planner to work on writing a better two-boat schedule. First they opened a hiring proccess, he said – and they couldn’t find anyone. Then they tried again, found a qualified candidate – who was going to take the job but changed their mind. Now, Vezina said, they’re in the process of finding a “consultant” who can take on the schedule, and they’re supposed to get help from a WSDOT service planner. Even with that, Vezina said, it’ll probably be a year or so before a new two-boat Triangle Route schedule can be in place. He added that they actually have funding now for two service planners, so that if one leaves in the future, they won’t be entirely without one – but they still need to hire the first one before they can hire a second.

Two other personnel challenges affecting the Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth run came up: First, the Vashon dock cameras are currently down, because the WSDOT employee who works on cameras is “out on family leave” (and apparently has no backup), and second, traffic-control officers at the Fauntleroy dock aren’t consistently available because they’re generally area law-enforcement officers on overtime, and the short staffing at agencies including the Seattle Police Department leave few available and/or interested for those kinds of assignments.

WSF’s Nicole McIntosh talked about their efforts to recruit for other jobs, including work to increase maritime-career awareness among high-school students, plus a new effort called MITAGS in which they’re taking applications for a class of 12 recruits to start on the path toward becoming licensed deck officers. They’ve been to job fairs around the country, too, she said. In Q&A, someone asked if the system staffing is still hampered by the dismissal of employees who refused to comply with vaccination requirements during the pandemic. McIntosh said that WSF had lost 120 employees but in the past year alone has hired more than 180, so their overall staffing has more than bounced back; plus, it was noted, as of a year ago, those employees are eligible to return if they’re interested.

As for the boat shortage, introductory remarks recapped that WSF is in the process of seeking one or two builders for its new hybrid-electric ferries, two of which will be available in 2028 if the process proceeds as hoped, two more in 2029, and the fifth in 2030.

Meantime, the system keeps running with boats as old as 65, and some boats for which parts aren’t even made any more – sometimes WSF employees make their own parts, Vezina noted. The WSF manager in charge of electrification, Matt von Ruden, fielded questions including how much of an environmental savings the hybrid-electric ferries would really bring. 76 percent less greenhouse-gas emissions, he said. Twice, persistent questions about “wouldn’t it be faster to just build diesel ferries?” No, said WSF execs, because they have a design, funding, and directive to build hybrid-electric boats; even if the directive changed tomorrow, they’d be “a year behind.” Other questions about the future new boats included battery safety – that was explained in minute detail – and capacity (160 cars).

MISCELLANEOUS: If you’re interested in ridership trends, it’s not back to pre-pandemic levels yet (that’s the green line, while the red line is this year so far):

And here’s the by-the-numbers slide with which the meeting opened:

IF YOU’RE WONDERING ABOUT THE FAUNTLEROY TERMINAL PROJECT: It wasn’t mentioned in the presentation (though it got a brief mention in the winter meetings), and we didn’t hear anything about it in the Q&A (although we missed a few minutes in the last half-hour of the meeting).

TO ATTEND TUESDAY’S MEETING: It’s scheduled for 6 pm, online; go here to register for the link.

Three Washington State Ferries notes:

TONIGHT: On the Fauntleroy/Vashon/Southworth route, M/V Kitsap is sailing at a reduced capacity for the rest of the night, 300 people maximum, because of a crew shortage.

SUNDAY: The systemwide summer schedule takes effect tomorrow. For the Triangle Route, that means two things, WSF says:

Beginning with our summer schedule, we will operate an unscheduled third ferry weekdays on our Fauntleroy/Vashon/Southworth route when crewing and a vessel are available.

This boat will sail around the other two scheduled vessels to help move more riders and keep the two-boat schedule on time.

(Also) an added roundtrip sailing between Vashon and Fauntleroy midday on Fridays.

MONDAY/TUESDAY: Another reminder that WSF’s systemwide updates/Q&A community meeting will be held in two online sessions, noon Monday and 6 pm Tuesday, with duplicate presentations. Registration to get the link for either (or both) is here.

Washington State Ferries says that “due to the lack of an Oiler,” it will take M/V Kitsap out of service after the 6:15 pm Fauntleroy to Vashon sailing. After that, all #2 sailings are canceled for the rest of the night; M/V Kittitas will remain in service. (You can use Vessel Watch to check its location while you’re waiting.)