SEATTLE — A maintenance issue forced Washington State Ferries (WSF) to kick off its summer 2025 with canceled sailings on the Bremerton-Seattle route.
WSF sent an alert just after 5 a.m. Friday, announcing the cancelation of the 6:20 a.m. sailing from Bremerton to Seattle and the 7:35 a.m. return sailing from Seattle, due to a fire pump issue on the Walla Walla.
“They discovered that and within less than two hours were able to fix it,” WSF spokesperson Dana Warr told KOMO News.
Service on that route was restored with the 8:45 a.m. sailing from Bremerton, but Warr said that they already had a plan in place to move another boat to that route had the repair taken longer to complete. Warr said WSF is expecting about 60,000 to 65,000 riders to board their boats each day through the holiday weekend on a total of about 2,000 sailings.
“We get really busy on Memorial Day weekend, and we don’t stop until after Labor Day,” Warr said.
The big question both daily and occasional riders have is, will there be enough staffing to keep up with the summer demand?
We’ve been focused on our crewing issues and the shortage of staff,” head of WSF Steve Nevey said during a community meeting this week. “Coming into and then out of the pandemic, it really opened up these wounds that we had, and we don’t have enough people, and we don’t have enough vessels, but like I say, we are making major steps forward.
Nevey said they’ve been working to implement new programs to hire and train new crew and retain people already in the system.
“And now we’re in a position where we’re pretty much back to the crewing levels we had before the pandemic,” Nevey said. That should be good news since they have not returned to pre-pandemic ridership.
WSF may be ready to carry about one-quarter million people this weekend, but it’s still not back to the ridership the system carried during summer holiday weekends pre-pandemic when they welcomed 400,000 to 500,00 people on board. Still, between now and September, Warr said they will carry nearly half of their annual ridership during the four upcoming months.
And they’re planning to do it with more boats in the rotation. But do they have enough crew to cover those extra boats? Right now, they’re running 15 boats, with a bonus boat when they have the staff for it.
“We’re moving to an 18-vessel fleet, and that requires more crew, and what has happened over the last year is that we have a really good bench, relief captains, a lot of relief engineers, that can come in when one person can’t make it cause they’re sick or something emergency,” Warr said.
When someone can’t make their shift, the boat cannot leave the dock until there is a replacement because they cannot set sail without all crewmembers required by the U.S. Coast Guard.
This is the new restoration plan WSF will implement:
June 15: Seattle/Bremerton will return to its two-boat scheduleJune 30: Fauntleroy/Vashon/Southworth “Triangle” will resume a three-boat scheduleJuly 4:Port Townsend/Coupeville will get a second vessel, every Friday through Monday, through Oct. 13
We’re not just trying to get better at Washington State Ferries. We are getting better, where reliability is improving, staffing is stabilizing,” Nevey said. “And I think we’re really starting to build momentum in a positive direction, and we’re gonna continue building on that momentum, and hopefully, those of you who don’t really feel that we’re providing service, we expect we’ll start to feel that soon, and starting to feel like the ferry system is more reliable again.
Anyone planning to take a ferry at any time should use the state transportation app. There’s a section devoted just to ferries, providing the schedule for each route and any alerts posted to that route.
“Always think of an alternate route. The one you’re lined up and doesn’t always mean it’s the fastest. There will be delays and some instances, hours of delays. And that should be expected and planned for,” Warr said.
If planning to drive on board, you can see how many drivers are already in line with a ticket. And if you use the vessel finder feature on the app, you can see, in real time, if the ferry you want to take is on time or not.
