HomeMy WebLinkAbout071824 email - WSF Weekend ServiceALERT: BE CAUTIOUS This email originated outside the organization. Do not open attachments or click on links if you are not expecting them.
Good evening.
Earlier this week, I sent out an update on service for the Clinton/Mukilteo and Fauntleroy/Southworth/Vashon routes, letting you know that, with a vessel unexpectedly out of service
for mechanical issues, and no service relief vessel available, the Clinton/Mukilteo route may go to one-boat service for the weekend. Tomorrow through Sunday is Vashon Island’s Strawberry
Festival, its most highly attended annual event, and the community, on reduced service for three years, had reasonably requested we provide three-boat service to help with expected
heavy traffic. With limited options, the decision was made to move the 90-vehicle Sealth from Clinton/Mukilteo to add the third boat at the Triangle, putting Clinton/Mukilteo on one-boat
service for the weekend – to be restored early next week before their big annual event, the Whidbey Island Fair.
With the out-of-service vessel (Yakima) repaired and ready for service, this morning a cross section of WSF staff met to discuss how to cover as much service as possible this weekend
with the vessels and crewing available. I’m happy to report the repaired vessel will resume service on the Anacortes/San Juan Islands route tomorrow morning, the vessel moved north
from Clinton/Mukilteo to cover its service (Chelan) will return to Clinton/Mukilteo (an increase in capacity of 34 vehicles) to maintain two-boat service there, with the Sealth moving
to the Triangle to provide unscheduled “bonus boat” coverage during the height of weekend travel to and from Vashon. Figuring out these moves is more complicated than it would seem
and I’m incredibly proud of the work I saw my colleagues do today to make it happen – they worked collaboratively and with a customer focus that belies the narrative one all too often
hears about public employees.
While we have a solid plan, it’s built on having 15 vessels available, the bare minimum for our current service. If a boat goes out of service due to crewing or mechanical issues, its
route may be affected for the weekend. We’ll be working to ensure that doesn’t happen, but the risk is there.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Best,
Hadley
Hadley Rodero (she/her)
Deputy Director – Planning, Customer & Government Relations
Washington State Ferries/WSDOT Ferries Division
hadley.rodero@wsdot.wa.gov <mailto:hadley.rodero@wsdot.wa.gov>
mobile | 206-818-3813