Topic: Ferries

Reservations Returning

Written on December 10, 2021 at 4:41 am, by

This just in from WSF… Vehi­cle reser­va­tions for trav­el on the San Juan Islands and Port Townsend/Coupeville routes after New Year’s Day are sched­uled to open next week should the cur­rent four-boat ser­vice remain sus­tain­able. Win­ter sea­son reser­va­tions will be avail­able at 7 a.m. PST on Fri­day, Dec. 17. The win­ter sched­ule runs from Jan. 2  Con­tin­ue Reading

4‑Boat Service Returns

Written on November 18, 2021 at 12:32 pm, by

This just in from WSF… The Anacortes/San Juan Islands route will return to four-boat ser­vice and oper­ate on its usu­al Fall Sched­ule start­ing Fri­day, Nov. 19. Cus­tomers are encour­aged to check the four-boat “Anacortes/San Juan Islands” sail­ing sched­ule, which will be list­ed as inac­tive until it takes effect on Nov. 19.  Reser­va­tions will remain sus­pend­ed on the route  Con­tin­ue Reading

Ferry News

Written on November 11, 2021 at 5:53 am, by

The fol­low­ing announce­ment is from Wash­ing­ton State Fer­ries… Ini­tial Plans to Restore Ser­vice We know and under­stand that our reduced ser­vice sched­ules are caus­ing many chal­lenges for thou­sands of rid­ers across our sys­tem. Again, last month’s dif­fi­cult deci­sion to cut back sail­ings was only done when it became clear we didn’t have the crew­ing nec­es­sary  Con­tin­ue Reading

EDC’s Ferry Service Disruptions Impacts Survey

Written on October 16, 2021 at 6:00 am, by

The EDC recent­ly launched a sur­vey to deter­mine eco­nom­ic and social impacts to San Juan Coun­ty res­i­dents, from recent Wash­ing­ton State Fer­ries ser­vice dis­rup­tions.  Ini­tial find­ings show that most res­i­dents respond­ing to the sur­vey report­ed neg­a­tive impacts. Key find­ings from the sur­vey: 447 par­tic­i­pants from San Juan Coun­ty respond­ed to the sur­vey.  Of those, 94%  Con­tin­ue Reading

WSF Reduced Sailing Schedules

Written on October 14, 2021 at 2:56 pm, by

This just in from WSF… Wash­ing­ton State Fer­ries will tem­porar­i­ly oper­ate reduced sail­ing sched­ules on most routes begin­ning this Sat­ur­day, Oct. 16. The change will help offer more pre­dictable and reli­able ser­vice sys­temwide in the face of crew­ing short­ages due to a glob­al short­age mariners that has been wors­ened by the pan­dem­ic. There­fore the fol­low­ing changes  Con­tin­ue Reading

Change in Ferry Reservations

Written on October 8, 2021 at 5:36 am, by

This just in from Wash­ing­ton State Fer­ries… Wash­ing­ton State Fer­ries will reduce the total num­ber of reser­va­tions avail­able dur­ing the two-week and two-day releas­es for the rest of the cur­rent sea­son begin­ning Fri­day, Oct. 8. Start­ing Fri­day, only 20% of a sailing’s total capac­i­ty will open for each release rather than the usu­al 30%. The adjust­ment  Con­tin­ue Reading

EDC invites input from businesses, residents, on WSF service disruptions

Written on September 25, 2021 at 7:45 am, by

  The EDC invites island busi­ness own­ers, work­ers and res­i­dents to par­tic­i­pate in a sur­vey regard­ing Wash­ing­ton State Fer­ries ser­vice dis­rup­tions this past sum­mer.  Islanders are invit­ed to par­tic­i­pate in the sur­vey here:  https://forms.gle/uzXU6vy3tujUyuSR9 Anec­do­tal infor­ma­tion and data derived from the sur­vey will be used to bet­ter under­stand eco­nom­ic and oth­er impacts from fer­ry ser­vice  Con­tin­ue Reading

“Global shortage of experienced mariners”

Written on August 26, 2021 at 5:44 am, by

This sto­ry comes from Wash­ing­ton State Fer­ries and it may help shed some light on all the fer­ry sail­ing can­cel­la­tions due to “Short­age of Coast Guard doc­u­ment­ed crew”… We’re not the only marine trans­porta­tion sys­tem deal­ing with a lack of crewmem­bers. Fol­low­ing BC Fer­ries’ can­cel­la­tion of a cou­ple sail­ings last week due to a staffing short­fall,  Con­tin­ue Reading

Fall, Winter Ferries Reservations for Anacortes and San Juan Route Open Tuesday

Written on July 24, 2021 at 8:45 am, by

From Wash­ing­ton State Fer­ries Vehi­cle reser­va­tions for trav­el between late Sep­tem­ber and New Year’s Day on the Ana­cortes and San Juan Islands and Port Townsend and Coupeville routes will be released next week. Start­ing at 7 a.m. Tues­day, July 27, cus­tomers can secure their spot on sail­ings between Sept. 26 and Jan. 1, 2022. Cus­tomers can  Con­tin­ue Reading

Anacortes and San Juan Ferries Ridership Nears 2019 Levels

Written on July 19, 2021 at 4:30 am, by

By Nicole McIn­tosh, Chief of Staff, WSDOT Fer­ries Divi­sion The state’s reopen­ing and the start of sum­mer are bring­ing us a surge in rid­er­ship. We car­ried almost 86,000 rid­ers on Sat­ur­day, July 3. That beats our old pan­dem­ic high of near­ly 80,000 on the Sat­ur­day of Memo­r­i­al Day week­end on May 29. July 3 was  Con­tin­ue Reading

Pandemic-related Changes on Washington State Ferries

Written on July 18, 2021 at 4:30 am, by

From the Wash­ing­ton State Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion With the state lift­ing most pan­dem­ic-relat­ed restric­tions on June 30, our fer­ry sys­tem has changed the fol­low­ing:  No longer enforc­ing COVID-19 capac­i­ty lim­its No longer advis­ing peo­ple com­ing aboard in a per­son­al vehi­cle to remain in their vehi­cles. No longer requir­ing toll­booth employ­ees to use self­ie sticks with self-swipe  Con­tin­ue Reading

Washington State Ferries Warns of Longer Waits this Fourth of July

Written on July 2, 2021 at 4:30 am, by

From Wash­ing­ton State Fer­ries Cus­tomers should be pre­pared if their trav­els this hol­i­day week­end include rid­ing aboard a fer­ry. Some routes will be sail­ing on their hol­i­day sail­ing sched­ules. Cus­tomers can note spe­cif­ic hol­i­day sail­ings as they are marked on the timeta­bles for each route. How­ev­er, all cus­tomers should be pre­pared for longer waits at the ter­mi­nal no  Con­tin­ue Reading

Crew Shortage, Maintenance Issues Cancel Weekend WSF Sailings in San Juans

Written on June 27, 2021 at 12:35 pm, by

By Hay­ley Day, San Juan Update Sail­ing can­ce­la­tions aboard Wash­ing­ton State Fer­ries ves­sels in the San Juan Islands reached a boil­ing point over the week­end. The inter­is­land fer­ry was can­celed Sun­day until 11:35 a.m. due to a lack of staffing. Orig­i­nal­ly the route was can­celed until 2:25 p.m. but was lat­er updat­ed. The No. 1  Con­tin­ue Reading

Masks No Longer Required on Sun Decks, Car Decks of Washington State Ferries

Written on June 27, 2021 at 4:30 am, by

From Wash­ing­ton State Fer­ries Face masks are now required only in indoor areas of our ter­mi­nals and ves­sels for all rid­ers and employ­ees in com­pli­ance with the lat­est CDC guide­lines. All cus­tomers inside ter­mi­nals or ves­sels should con­tin­ue to wear face cov­er­ings. How­ev­er, pas­sen­gers can remove their masks while out­doors on the sun deck, car  Con­tin­ue Reading

Crew Shortage Cancels Two Saturday Evening WSF Sailings

Written on June 26, 2021 at 4:06 pm, by

From Wash­ing­ton State Fer­ries The 6:45 p.m. sail­ing from Ana­cortes to Lopez and the 7:35 p.m. sail­ing from Lopez to Ana­cortes Sat­ur­day have been can­celed due to a crew­ing short­age. Pas­sen­gers with reser­va­tions for those trips will be loaded onto one of the sub­se­quent sail­ings to their des­ti­na­tion and can check the Ana­cortes / San  Con­tin­ue Reading

Washington State Ferries Upgrades Phone System, Warns of Dropped Calls

Written on June 23, 2021 at 4:30 am, by

From Wash­ing­ton State Fer­ries Wash­ing­ton State Fer­ries is cur­rent­ly upgrad­ing our phone sys­tems and some callers may expe­ri­ence con­nec­tion issues attempt­ing to reach an agent. The upgrades are expect­ed to be com­plet­ed by the end of the week. If you’re unable to reach an agent, please hang up and try again. Cus­tomers can also ask ques­tions or pro­vide feed­back  Con­tin­ue Reading