Washington State Ferries (WSF), a division of the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), operates the largest ferry system in the United States (Washington State ferry 2041 Long Range Plan). The route is, however, inconsistent, slow and the boats are poorly maintained. The problem results from the small size of the dock and the old ticketing system. The state ferry’s policy prioritizes the punctuality of arrival and departure but does not provide enough time for the boats to fill up. This leads to many boats leaving the dock before they get fully loaded. Personnel issues cause challenges to the entire system. The system lacked a director for quite a while back and the personnel claim that they are in need of more employees. The system is short-staffed and has no adequate employees to cover up for emergencies such as sick staff members. Most of the fleets are aging and face mechanical problems hence the few fleets available have to go many rounds rendering the slow services. If maintenance services were provided, vessels that had mechanical problems could not get out service.
The system is not in a position to fund ferry repairs since the time when funding was slashed in 2000. The state does not set aside enough funds to cover for the maintenance of the ferries. Many vessels have gone out of service. Commuters experience long ferry waits as the few ferry workers struggle to get vehicles aboard. Ferries depart from West Seattle’s dock when they are not full (Cullen et al., 2018). They get loaded with a few cars even when a lot of cars are queued up waiting to board the ferry. The problems which arise in during summer result from the dock being too small. Washington has the policy of prioritizing punctual arrival and departures but do not consider the ferries being filled up. Some ferries leave the dock half-empty. The workers have to decide whether to load the boat fully or depart with empty spaces regardless the fact that many cars are queued up waiting to be loaded on the boat.
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Traffic at the Fauntleroy dock is overwhelming. They lack prepaid tickets and people have to stop and line up at the dock to purchase tickets. This slows up the loading process of the dock and the boat as well. The ferry terminal waiting area needs to be expanded to reduce the amount of cars that line up. By expanding the area, cars will be in a position to let through the toll booths before the arrival of the ferries and this can reduce the heavy traffic at the dock. The expansion will as well reduce the number of boats that leave with open spaces. The heavy traffic affects the local neighborhood dock. Most of the times traffic builds up to an extent of commuters using different routes home before the last ferry sails. The long queues are a frustration to the commuters. In addition to that, the boats come and the leave the dock half-empty. Ferry offices have never come to the dock to see the problems caused by the plans they put in place without first observing the actual area and the dock.
The passenger-only ferry between Kingston and Seattle has a lot going for it (Bruzonne). Poor decisions made by the Washington state ferry head office such as removing the bypass lane which allowed passengers with prepaid tickets to avoid the tool booth queue and head directly to the boat have caused a lot of inconveniences at the dock due to the traffic. Some ferries can go only in one direction. The head office should organize car traffic in order to prevent vehicles meant for one destination from blocking those that are headed in another destination.
Most of the boats have aged due to poor maintenance making them unable to carry many vehicles, therefore leaving half empty and with long queues still on the waiting lane. The long line at the toll booth makes it difficult for people to move quickly and fill up the boats. The dock has one dock spaces which makes it difficult to load and offload much quickly. The same old small dock of the ferries limits the ability of the agency to capitalize on bigger boats. If bigger vessels could be put on the route, more cars could be moved and reduce on traffic.
The ferry system should change the way tickets are sold and change the ferry schedules as well. This would help the ferries to load and offload more quickly and depart when full. The implementation of Good to Go kind of tolling system which has been in consideration for many years would enable vehicles to pass by the toll booth faster for boarding. The strict schedules on timing should be changed. New schedules should be implemented that will allow each ferry some more time at the dock. The state ferry offices should evaluate the schedules on the punctuality expected from the boats. This will enable the ferries take fuller loads. With new schedules, all commuters will be allowed to go both to Vashon and Southworth which will make the loading process much simpler. The offices should look for alternative sources of maintenance fee for the ferries instead of imposing high ticket prices on customers as a way generating service income. The ferry systems must look at the current problems in order to come up with lasting solutions.
Apparently, Kingston has a ferry traffic problem ( Steamship Historical Society of America) . The Traffic problems result from Vashon boat going directly from Vashon to Fauntleroy half empty, leaving many vehicles on the dock. This results in traffic building up into the neighborhood and nearby streets. Cars are unable to access the dock to load on the ferries in a timely manner. This can highly contribute to the ferry docks filling fully up before leaving. The built-up traffic is a problem to the nearby residence. People find it difficult to cross the roads to do their shopping because of the traffic. Business people claim that the traffic makes it hard for customers to get down to their stalls downtown. It poses danger to pedestrians because drivers are not careful as they try to hurry to reach the ferry. People cannot get through the busy lanes when they want to shop downtown. It causes delays to pedestrians.
Washington state ferry south worth to Fauntleroy is slow because of the fact that it has to make three stops on its way with long processes at each dock that are inconsistent. Ferry docks leave Fauntleroy when half empty, leaving many queued up car behind because of the slow ticketing process which requires the boats to waste a lot of time in the process of loading. The boats leave without filling up to be on time because they follow a strict time schedule implemented by the office.
Poor maintenance of the boats leads to their consistence breakdown, leaving only two boats to cover the three stop routes. The reduction on the number of ferries due to maintenance issues makes the few remaining boats to take a longer time to go to and fro the routes. People spend more time in waiting lanes at the dock. The waiting crowds become larger leading to a lot of traffic because they depend on the few boats. The management should introduce relief boats which are to be put on standby in case of a breakdown in a boat to enhance fast services. Ferry ticket rates have gone up in order to make up for the losses that come about during operations and this has had a negative impact on commuters’ budget as they incur more expenses.
The government should support the ferry system financially. Most of the problems, such as maintenance of the ferries, occur due to insufficient finances for the ferry personnel to hire more people that can support in maintenance. The personnel faces challenges of having inadequate staff as they are not financially capable. Ticket prices shoot as a way of generating money for the ferries to continue with operations. This inconveniences commuters. More ferries should be allocated to the routes in order to provide comfortable commuting for passengers without much delay. The dock needs to be expanded as the traffic brought about by the overcrowded commuters is overwhelming.
References
Antony Bruzzone in Guidelines for Ferry Transportation Services, p 62
Cullen, A., Page, S., Gustafson, Z., Kearl, Z., Scott, E., & Thomas, S. B. (2018). Improving Loading, Ticketing, and Community Relations for the Washington State Ferries’ Triangle Route.
Steamboat Bill in Steamship Historical Society of America. p 152
Washington State Ferries 2041 Long Range Plan, p1
