(The Center Square) – The Washington State Department of Transportation’s ferry system will be tasked with handling issues with a lack of vessel availability in 2024.
Since 2015, when Washington State Ferries had 24 vessels, the department has retired five vessels and added two. The system’s entire fleet now consists of 21 vessels ranging from five to 64 years old.
According to the Washington State Ferries’ 2040 Long Range Plan, 26 vessels are the necessary amount to provide reliable service on every route as well as out of service time for necessary vessel inspection, maintenance, and preservation work. However, the department expects to only have between 16 and 18 vessels available at any given time over the next few years.
The first new vessel is likely to not enter service until 2028, according to the department.
The Washington State Ferries’ 2040 Long Range Plan includes building 16 new vessels through 2040 to keep pace with the aging fleet and ensure necessary relief vessels to maintain reliable service, including both operating and capital improvement costs. The total cost to implement this plan over the next 20 years is set at $14.6 billion.
The department recently increased both passenger and vehicle fares by 4.25% in 2023 in order to cover a projected $28 million gap in operating expenses over the next two years. In October 2024, fares will again go up by 4.25%.
The delay in new vessels being ready for service comes despite the Washington state Legislature changing state law to allow Washington State Ferries to expand its vessel build program out of state, which gives the department additional opportunity to build new vessels more quickly.
The department’s fleet has an average age of 32 years, with half of the fleet having more than 30 years in service. Five of the vessels are over 50 years old. According to the recent Washington State Ferries Service Contingency Plan, the aging fleet requires more maintenance to deal with problems such as steel corrosion, and repairing obsolete equipment that could lead to a higher risk of vessel breakdown.
Washington State Ferries is the largest ferry system in the U.S., and its vessels are highly regulated by the U.S. Coast Guard. Scheduling tests and maintenance projects include an underwater inspection twice every five years, an annual safety inspection, quarterly random inspections and additional testing of sprinkler systems and marine evacuation systems.
The contingency plan added that with the fleet operating with only 21 vessels and no service relief vessel, taking a vessel out of service for repairs is more complicated.
According to data from the U.S. Department of Transportation, the average number of monthly Washington ferry unlinked boardings went from approximately 1.43 million in 2021 to 1.45 million in 2022. Data for ferry ridership through November 2023 revealed that the average monthly ridership on Washington state Ferries has only boosted to 1.57 million.
In comparison, the average number of monthly Washington ferry boardings during peak-season in 2019 was 2.3 million.
The Center Square reached out to the Washington Department of Transportation for estimated costs associated with replacing ferry vessels and maintenance but did not receive a response at the time of this publication.
