SEATTLE — Washington State Ferries expects a busy travel weekend over Labor Day and warned passengers to be prepared for last-minute delays or cancelations.
The agency projects nearly 400,000 people will ride a ferry between Aug. 31 and Sept. 5 with Saturday, Sept. 2 expected to be the peak travel day.
The busiest sailings will be routes headed westbound or onto an island Aug. 31-Sept. 2 and routes headed eastbound or off an island Sept. 3-Sept. 5.
Passengers are encouraged to take either early morning or late night sailings to avoid long wait times.
Some routes will have alternate schedules for the holiday weekend, and riders are urged to check schedules before heading to the dock. On Sept. 4, the Seattle-Bainbridge route will run a Saturday schedule, and the Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth route will run a two-boat weekend schedule. Other routes have additional changes.
State ferries also warned sailings could be delayed or canceled at the last minute due to a lack of relief crewing or mechanical problems with a boat.
The agency said it is making progress toward reaching its targeted staffing levels. However, as of July 31, state ferries was short 61 positions of its target, including captains, mates, unlicensed deck staff, engineers and oilers.
"We've made small gains, but we really need to make bigger gains," said Washington State Ferries Spokesperson Dana Warr, when it comes to staffing levels.
Warr said the ferry system is working with maritime academies and even high schools to get people interested in working for Washington State Ferries, as they say many of their employees have been retiring and that training and certification can take years for some positions.
He said low staffing levels can cause a ferry not to sail, because often there are not enough back-up employees if someone can't work. Due to regulations, they cannot sail if they do not meet the minimum amount of staff mandated to be on board.
"So if we lose one, by regulation, we have to stop sailing," said Warr.
In addition to staffing levels being a challenge for the state ferry system, they are also facing an aging fleet of vessels, with some that are 60 years old. Warr said that a few years ago they had 24 vessels and that they are now down to 19, adding that only 17 are usually in service due to maintenance.
"It's going to be a couple of years before we get new boats," said Warr. "So we have to work with what we have right now."
The surge in holiday travelers will cap what the ferries said will likely be the system’s busiest since before the pandemic. Of the top 10 ridership days since 2019, seven were this past summer. The day with the most riders was July 1 when 88,190 people rode a ferry.
Warr recommends that passengers look at alternate routes if there are backups on one route, follow the ferries on the WSDOT app, and sign up for ferry alerts.