Washington State Ferries sent out a ferry alert notice outlining service changes at 2:40 p.m. this afternoon:

Due to ongoing repairs on the Hyak, there will be an unscheduled 6:35 p.m. sailing from Anacortes to Friday Harbor and an 8:15 p.m. sailing from Friday Harbor to Anacortes.

The 6:35 p.m. sailing from Anacortes to Lopez is cancelled.

The 7 p.m. sailing from Anacortes to Shaw and Orcas will also stop at Lopez. This will delay the 9 p.m. sailing from Anacortes to Lopez, Shaw and Orcas.

The scheduled 8:20 p.m. sailing from Anacortes to Friday Harbor is cancelled and will be replaced with an unscheduled 10 pm sailing from Anacortes to Friday Harbor.

This will cancel the following interisland sailings: the 3:05 pm and 4:35 p.m. sailings from Orcas the 3:20 p.m. and 4:15 p.m. sailings from Shaw and the 3:55 pm. sailing from Lopez. Interisland service will resume with the 5:40 p.m. sailing from Friday Harbor.

We apologize for the inconvenience. Our maintenance teams are working hard to return the Hyak to service. Updates will occur as conditions change.

Thanks to all of our customers who commented on the two proposals for the Anacortes/San Juan Islands/Sidney, B.C. fall schedule, which we provided for your review in June. We read all of your suggestions and made adjustments where possible, given our objectives to improve schedule reliability and adhere to U.S. Coast Guard crew endurance requirements. Some changes that reflect customer input include:

• Providing a 6:00 p.m. sailing from Anacortes to Friday Harbor.
• Providing a 4:30 p.m. sailing from Shaw to Anacortes.
• Loading only walk-on traffic at the 11:45 a.m. stop at Lopez.
• The 8:25 p.m. sailing from Anacortes will stop at Lopez and Friday Harbor and the 8:55 p.m. sailing from Anacortes will stop at Shaw and Orcas.

The feedback we received from the Ferry Advisory Committee is that these changes resolved the majority of customer issues. To get a copy of the final fall 2010 schedule, visit www.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries/Service/ScheduleProposals.htm.

By Stan Matthews
County Communications Program Manager

Beginning Monday, July 5, the solid waste transfer station on San Juan Island will be open only to self-haulers who can throw their trash directly into a container, similar to the way it is done in the recycling area and at the County drop box facility on Lopez.

Packer trucks, including those used by franchise hauler San Juan Sanitation and the Town of Friday Harbor, will have to dump at the Orcas transfer station or on the mainland.

The decision to change the San Juan Island solid waste operation was needed after the County and Town failed to agree on the terms for revisions to the County’s lease for the transfer station property. The Town, which owns the property, has offered to construct a roof over the transfer station’s tipping floor – one of the basic steps required by the Department of Ecology to renew the variance which allows the facility to operate as a transfer station – but the County Council, after meeting in closed session Tuesday – did not accept the Town’s proposed package of changes to the existing lease.

“The problem issues include our need to be able to extend the lease if we encounter delays caused by events beyond our control, the short amount of notice required to terminate the lease, and there we have been advised that legally it would be unwise to accept the  liability clause,” said County Administrator Pete Rose. “We think these issues could be resolved, but the deadline is July 1 and we have run out of time.”

San Juan County solid waste utility manager Steve Alexander expects the change will have little immediate effect on individuals who haul their own trash to the station. “For them, he said, the only noticeable difference is that they will toss their trash directly into the container.”

There will be some additional physical effort involved. For safety reasons, a barrier is required to prevent self-haul vehicles from backing up too far and customers from falling into the container, so people will have to toss their trash over the (relatively low) barrier.

Because some solid waste utility personnel will have to be shifted to the Orcas facility to handle its increased load of commercial and municipal trucks, the San Juan Island facility’s operating schedule is expected to change over time, but initially self-haul customers will be accommodated on the existing schedule. Any self-haul schedule changes will be publicized in advance.

Representatives of the County public works department have met with the Town’s solid waste department and San Juan Sanitation to discuss how to cope with the changes in the solid waste utility’s operations.  The Town conducted a test run last month, unloading at the County facility on Orcas Island. At the time its utility officials saw the biggest problem as the amount of time personnel and expensive hauling equipment would be out of service while traveling and waiting to board the ferry.

County Administrator Pete Rose says it is impossible to say how long operations will need to continue this way. “Our first step is to get back to the table and try to arrive at an agreement with the Town on the lease and construction of the tipping floor cover. Then we will have to convince the Department of Ecology and our Health Department that we are making serious progress toward building a fully compliant replacement facility.”

San Juan County’s Ferry Advisory Committee has established a new “feedback” web page to accept comments on ferry service and draft ferry schedules. The feedback page address is: sanjuanco.com/committees/FAC/FAC-Feedback.aspx.

The web page was put in service Thursday, June 17, as Washington State Ferries and the San Juan County Ferry Advisory Committee (FAC) called for public comments on two options for the Fall 2010 schedule (available online at: sanjuanco.com/Docs/FallFerryOptions.pdf).

Both options take into account new Coast Guard-mandated constraints on operations, including the elimination of “touring watches”.

Another limitation compared to spring operations is the 130-car Chelan will be out of service for maintenance and be replaced by the 150-car Elwah on the international run.  The 100-car Sealth will then sub for the Elwah on the mainland run, reducing capacity on those sailings.

The “Option #1″ schedule is very similar to the Spring 2010 schedule.

The “Option #2″ schedule shifts the Sidney run earlier in order to provide more capacity in the afternoon. This results in some changes to sailing times which will help some, but may cause problems for others.

In discussions at its meeting Wednesday, members of FAC acknowledged that neither schedule option will satisfy everyone.
The Committee hopes to receive input on the two schedule options from a wide range of ferry users. It asks that comments and suggestions be as specific as possible, noting that comments such as, “these both stink” are not of much help.

Because resources are limited, FAC asks ferry users to distinguish between inconvenience and necessity, “The goal is to accommodate as many needs as possible,” said FAC Chair Howie Rosenfeld. “We all need to work together.”

Ferry users can comment either through the FAC Feedback page or by emailing Washington State Ferries at: wsfplanning@wasdot.wa.gov. Comments entered either way will be shared by WSF and FAC; however comments posted on the FAC page will also appear online, usually within 24 hours.

The new red 2010 summer schedules are available at all ferry terminals and on the vessels. Summer service changes include:

Anacortes/San Juan Islands: an additional vessel and increased hours of service. Customers should note a change from the printed schedule: the 5:50 a.m. sailing from Friday Harbor will stop at Lopez Island at approximately 6:25 a.m. and load Anacortes-bound traffic. This Lopez stop was added after the schedule went to print, in response to customer feedback.

Anacortes/Sidney, B.C.: two daily trips instead of one

Customers should begin planning ahead for the busy Fourth of July weekend. The heaviest traffic is expected westbound Thursday, July 1 and Friday, July 2, and eastbound Monday, July 5. Reservations are available now for the holiday weekend on the Port Townsend/Keystone and Anacortes/Sidney routes. Travelers should allow extra time for long waits at all terminals during the holiday weekend, especially in the San Juan Islands. WSF encourages customers to walk on instead of taking their vehicles. Details on extra service for the holiday weekend will be forthcoming. WSF will not provide free parking at the Anacortes terminal this year.

For more summer schedule details and other ferry system information, please visit www.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries. To sign up for free e-mail alerts about service disruptions and other route information, visit www.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries/email_alerts.

Fare increases for ferry riders have been put on hold because of the waste of taxpayer dollars exposed by the KING 5 Investigators in a continuing series “Waste on the Water.”

At its last meeting, the Washington State Transportation Commission voted unanimously to “delay further consideration of ferry fare adjustments.” The commission sent a letter to Governor Chris Gregoire about its decision on May 19th.
….

Transportation Commission Chairman Carol Moser wrote the letter to the governor.   The Transportation Committee decided it wasn’t prudent or fair to the public to proceed with hiking prices to ride the ferries until the reviews prompted by KING 5  [“Waste on the Water”] are complete.

A 2.5% fare increase is currently assumed in the WSF budget.

To read the full story, go to king5.com/news/investigators

Customers are advised to plan ahead for a temporary capacity reduction on the San Juan Islands inter-island ferry route beginning Monday, May 24 through Memorial Day weekend.

The Washington State Department of Transportation Ferries Division (WSF) is participating in a full-scale marine rescue response exercise with the U.S. Coast Guard on Tuesday, May 25. This critical emergency response exercise requires the use of two state ferries – the 124-car Chelan, and the 87-car Evergreen State. To provide these vessels for the exercise and cover service will require six vessel moves. This required exercise must be completed before the summer to avoid disrupting service during the highest traffic volumes of the year.

The 144-car Elwha, currently serving the Anacortes/San Juan Islands route, will fill in for the Chelan on the Anacortes/Sidney B.C. route. The 144-car Kaleetan will provide domestic service in place of the Elwha. The 34-car Hiyu will replace the Evergreen State on the San Juans inter-island route. Travelers should expect a significant vehicle-capacity reduction on the inter-island sailings and are advised to arrive early and allow extra time while the Hiyu serves the inter-island route.

The Sealth will serve the Seattle/Bremerton route, allowing the larger Kaleetan to carry the heavy recreational traffic in the San Juans during the holiday weekend. The Sealth will be paired with the 188-car Walla Walla, maintaining overall capacity on the Bremerton route.

“We urge our customers to plan very far in advance for Memorial Day weekend travel,” said David Moseley, Assistant Secretary for WSF. “We have planned to the best of our ability, with a lack of backup vessels, to meet service demands and prioritize emergency preparedness. We ask for every customer’s understanding as we move into this challenging period.”

WSF had planned to use the 90-car Sealth for the marine evacuation exercise; however, emerging repair needs on the Chelan necessitated the switch. Crews at the Eagle Harbor Maintenance facility on Bainbridge Island will perform repairs to the Chelan’s propeller system following its use in the emergency response exercise, which is taking place near Point Madison on the north end of the island. Once the Chelan repairs are completed, there will be a series of vessel moves that will restore capacity on the San Juans inter-island route with the Sealth.

For more ferry system information, please visit www.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries.

WSF has recently been the focus of criticism in the media, and I would like to address what has been going well and what we are doing to improve operations at the ferry system.  Thanks to our employees, WSF has an outstanding safety and reliability record. Our employees are the backbone of the organization: responsible for the safe passage of our 23 million customers each year, and keeping our aging fleet and terminals operational.  I am proud of what they do and I highly value their contribution to the system.

In my two plus years here, we have reduced consultant spending by $14.8M on the management side, but there is a lot more work to be done. Going forward, with the support of the Governor and the Secretary of Transportation, I am committed to:

• Work with the State Auditor’s Office to review payroll improvements made to date, and seek to identify further improvements in our ferries payroll and data system.
• Convene an independent five-member panel of public and private passenger-vessel industry leaders to review and assess the implementation of previous ferry audits and studies, assess Ferries Division operations and practices compared to other ferry systems, and recommend any best-practice changes.
• Eliminate travel time and mileage for future “special project” activities and recently required that approved special projects have a defined timeline with a deliverable product within that time;
• Eliminate the practice of some employees receiving both overtime pay and vacation pay if they were working during a scheduled vacation.
• Managers will have, as part of their personal performance appraisals, written expectations on the WSDOT management-union working relationship and the requirement that all interactions be handled with respect and impartiality;
• Management will develop overtime guidelines to significantly reduce overtime, unless it is essential for safe and effective operations;
• Initiate a more effective way for employees to expose unsafe, unethical or unwise practices.
• Produce a new quarterly “red flag” report for all WSF employees making more than their base pay, to ensure oversight on what led to the extra pay and how we can manage it through collective bargaining or through ferry manager approval of past and current pay practices;
• Immediately fill the vacant Deputy Director position with a person who has maritime experience.  This person will manage day-to-day operations of the ferry system (the largest in the nation), and oversee implementation of ferry employee contracts while ensuring management/union/employee relationships continue with respect;
• Immediately return to the practice of regular ferry management/union meetings to discuss ferry budget, operations and topics important to both to maintain good relationships.

As we work together to make this a stronger, better system, we want our customers, ferry served communities, and employees to know that they are valued.  During the coming months, you will continue to see WSF’s commitment to a streamlined, efficient and well-managed ferry system that meets the needs of ferry communities, and that serves the broader economic interests of our state.   I am firmly committed to see that it happens.

State Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond on Wednesday announced changes at Washington State Ferries aimed at addressing waste and lack of accountability.

The changes come in the wake of a series of stories aired on KING-TV that found ferry employees on “special projects” had been paid to drive to and from work for years.
…

Hammond said she and Gov. Chris Gregoire have instituted the following changes to address the issues:

• Hiring a deputy ferries director to hold managers more accountable.
• Implementing a new “red flag report” that will come out every quarter showing who’s making questionable overtime and why.
• Stopping the costly travel-time perk for special projects, which has been in effect for 30 years.
• Requesting the Passenger Vessel Association’s assistance in assembling an expert panel of ferry operators to conduct a management review. The Passenger Vessel Association is a national organization that “focuses on issues and concerns most relevant to owners and operators of passenger vessels,” according to its website.

“We’re not letting people get away with special deals, if it happened in the past, it’s stopping now,” Hammond said.

To read the entire article, go to seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2011851343_ferries13m

Thanks to Kathi Ciskowski

Ferry riders should note schedule adjustments for the holiday weekend and consider traveling outside of peak times to avoid the longest waits at the terminals. Customers should be prepared for waits of 2 to 3 hours or more heading westbound on Thursday afternoon and Friday, and eastbound on Monday.

Anacortes/San Juan Islands:

• On Friday, May 28, WSF will provide an extra sailing from Anacortes to Orcas at 2:05 p.m.
• On Monday, May 31, the 2:20 p.m. sailing from Friday Harbor will go directly to Anacortes instead of making its usual island stops.
• On Monday, May 31, WSF will also provide an extra sailing from Orcas to Anacortes at 3:20 p.m.