EDMONDS, Wash. — Washington State Ferries said its seeing a significant number of delays.
On Thursday, Diana Olmstead was hoping to make her ferry back to Kingston on time. Lately, that hasn't been the case.
“What may take me an hour to two hours can take three to four to five hours, depending on the ferry line,” said Olmstead.
Olmstead uses the Edmonds-Kingston ferry a couple of times a month.
“Coming over today I had to bump my lunch day with my friend I hadn't seen in 30 years until the next boat, so those things are definitely happening,” said Olmstead.
Data from the Washington State Ferries show on-time performance was its lowest this June than it’s been the same month of the last five years.
Ian Sterling with Washington State Ferries said it's dealing with staffing shortages during its busiest time of year.
“We are aggressively hiring and training as fast as we can. It's going to take a while before we're whole. We’re required to have a certain amount of trained staff on each vessel and if even one of those is short we're not able to sail,” said Sterling
The ferry routes that see the most delays are Anacortes/San Juan Islands, Seattle to Bainbridge and the Edmonds-Kingston routes.
“Trying to get to work on time is an issue but trying to get home at a decent hour to your family is an issue, too,” said Olmstead.
Sterling said the Anacortes ferry is a multi-destination route with increased ridership, but admits the schedule hasn't been working for a while.
“We’re in an effort to rewrite that schedule and work with the community to make sure it's better and we’ll do that in the slow season coming up,” said Sterling.
Sterling said the short-term problem is not enough staff. The long-term problem is not enough boats.
“We’re at the smallest fleet size that we've had in years. We have 21 boats, which is just on the cusp of being able to offer pre-pandemic service level,” said Sterling.
The ferry system has money from the Legislature to build five more boats and is looking at bids from builders.
Washington State Ferries has not been fully staffed since 2019, but Sterling said staffing is better now than it was a year ago heading into a busy Labor Day weekend.