Riders growing impatient as ferry problems persist
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SEATTLE -- Ferry riders got an unwelcome surprise Wednesday afternoon when they showed up to board the Seattle-Bremerton ferry and learned the run had been canceled.
The Department of Transportation tried to get the word out about the cancellations, but not everyone got the message.
Wednesday's cancellations are just the latest in a string of problems with the ferry system caused by service repairs and routine vessel maintenance.
It's not just commuters being inconvenienced by the recent rash of repairs, either. Special needs children who were looking forward to an annual Christmas cruise were also let down.
For the last 26 years, the Seafair Pirates Charity Foundation has brought holiday cheer to the annual Washington State Ferry Christmas Cruise for special needs kids, but this year the cruise was torpedoed.
"This, for the pirates, was a huge, huge thing they did every year," said Mark Jensen of the Seafair Pirates Charity Foundation.
The cancellation was just the latest for the Washington State Ferry System, which Department of Transportation officials admit is in a "financial crisis." Three vessels are currently out of service for repairs, and two others are out for routine maintenance.
Maureen Jann rides the ferry daily and relies on it get from Bremerton to Seattle.
"This is a highway," she said. "There is no getting around that -- this is a highway. They wouldn't treat the highways this way, so why would they treat the ferries this way?"
To compensate for the out-of-service vessels, two sailings -- the 12:20 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. -- have been cancelled all week on the Bremerton to Seattle run. Jann had no idea about the changes and even looked online before arriving at the dock.
While the DOT website does warn of cancellations, it continues to list the 1:30 p.m. sailing.
The Fauntleroy-Vashon run is also down a ferry and has delays. DOT officials say all routes should get better next week, and on Friday the Tacoma Ferry will be back in service.
"It's kind of disappointing that we got here and we're going to be late for our commitments," said Kristin Plyer of Bremerton.
Maintenance isn't the only issue with the ferry system, either. Staffing problems have forced 50 sailings in the past five months alone, and most of those were due to errors or workers now showing up.
The Department of Transportation tried to get the word out about the cancellations, but not everyone got the message.
Wednesday's cancellations are just the latest in a string of problems with the ferry system caused by service repairs and routine vessel maintenance.
It's not just commuters being inconvenienced by the recent rash of repairs, either. Special needs children who were looking forward to an annual Christmas cruise were also let down.
For the last 26 years, the Seafair Pirates Charity Foundation has brought holiday cheer to the annual Washington State Ferry Christmas Cruise for special needs kids, but this year the cruise was torpedoed.
"This, for the pirates, was a huge, huge thing they did every year," said Mark Jensen of the Seafair Pirates Charity Foundation.
The cancellation was just the latest for the Washington State Ferry System, which Department of Transportation officials admit is in a "financial crisis." Three vessels are currently out of service for repairs, and two others are out for routine maintenance.
Maureen Jann rides the ferry daily and relies on it get from Bremerton to Seattle.
"This is a highway," she said. "There is no getting around that -- this is a highway. They wouldn't treat the highways this way, so why would they treat the ferries this way?"
To compensate for the out-of-service vessels, two sailings -- the 12:20 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. -- have been cancelled all week on the Bremerton to Seattle run. Jann had no idea about the changes and even looked online before arriving at the dock.
While the DOT website does warn of cancellations, it continues to list the 1:30 p.m. sailing.
The Fauntleroy-Vashon run is also down a ferry and has delays. DOT officials say all routes should get better next week, and on Friday the Tacoma Ferry will be back in service.
"It's kind of disappointing that we got here and we're going to be late for our commitments," said Kristin Plyer of Bremerton.
Maintenance isn't the only issue with the ferry system, either. Staffing problems have forced 50 sailings in the past five months alone, and most of those were due to errors or workers now showing up.
I rode the ferry from Bremerton to Seattle almost every day for two years from 1989-91 when I was attaending classes at the UW. It's good to see that some things, at least, never change. The ferry's sucked then, and they still suck now.
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Keep voting for the same idiots who run this State and keep getting the same results. No surprise here. Move along.
Basically, if you require the use of the Ferry for a daily commute, that's your choice. The Ferry Operators got all the commuters by the throat. That's part of the cost of living in an area, not near your place of employment.
A highway? I think not. Maybe it gets subsidized from the highway budget, but it's not a highway. Could it be privatized? I would be curious to know what the fares would have to be to attract private investors.
 @MidnightRambler "I would be curious to know what the fares would have to be to attract private investors."
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At least double and more likely triple the current fares.
 @komoÂ
Can anybody figure out why the M/V Salish is running at such slow speeds on the Bremerton/Seattle run?Â
The listed speed on the Washington State Ferries says 16kts as the speed, and she was travelling 14-15 knots during the sea trials.Â
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 @PacificNWlover  @komo Fuel savings
"This is a highway," she said. "There is no getting around that -- this is a highway. They wouldn't treat the highways this way, so why would they treat the ferries this way?"
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The unions are also to blame. They have generous pay and benefits, and have too much power and friends in the legislature to make the necessary reforms.
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Why are there 4 boats serving Vashon Island? The WSDOT is also to blame. They don't try to be efficient, and there is not incentive to do so. This needs to change.Â
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Demand better.
@giveitarest Nah, lets just raise taxes instead of finding better ways to run things.
"This is a highway," she said. "There is no getting around that -- this is a highway. They wouldn't treat the highways this way, so why would they treat the ferries this way?"
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Because the legislature has adopted a user pays philosophy and figures they can gouge the user and save revenue for their pet projects. Users already pay 60% of the operating costs. Enough is enough. Demand better from your legislators.
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@giveitarest Some riders, such as myself, on the Bainbridge and Kingston runs actually pay 100% of operating costs and then some.
Who chose to live on the other side of the drink anyway? Poor planning I would say. Now it's up to us to figure out how to shuttle you back and forth. Am I missing something here?
@SEATTLITERON Yeah, you are missing a lot. Like the same taxes, vehicle registration fees, and gasoline taxes that everyone on that side of the water pays, for you to use roads and highways on this side of the water. We subsidize the state ferry system, just like they do, so you can use it if you ever need or want. They and all of us pay for the highways, so you can drive it and they can, if they ever need or want.
Get off your soapbox. chump. There is nothing poor about their planning. The only thing poor here is your arrogant and condescending attitude.
 @northwestsurfer It is poor planning. Rely on the state and my tax dollars to provide essentially ineffective unionized transportation. The only thing poor here is your weak argument, chump.
@Blackwater LLC Ok first you were blaming the residents, now you are blaming the ferry system and the unions, Get real dude, you arent making any sense
@SEATTLITERON Yes, you are missing the fact that it is a State transportation issue, not an "I don't use it so why should I care" issue. I don't drive on roads in Spokane, but my taxes still pay for them. See how that works?
 @TheBronze The people in Spokane pay taxes for your "state transportation issue.... See how that works?
 @Blackwater LLC  @TheBronze NO they don't. Spokane doesnt generate enough in taxes to cover them, so they end up receiving more money from Seattle.
I guess living on the other side has its down side
Bring the Kalakala back into Service!
 @Alexandra Shepiro Hopefully you are being ultra sarcastic.
I'm afraid this will be a long-standing disappointment. The State has let it go so bad, and got caught with their pants down so far, that it will take several years to get it back to where it needs to be.
Gregoire announcing a major transportation package is merely her parting shot to say essentially "Hey - at least I did something...", when in fact she played a significant role in allowing its decline
I'm surprised they didn't bring up the old lie that a captain had overslept on the wrong boat Mukilteo run and he had to be taken back to the dock to get on the right boat. Maybe it's because they now now that was never true. It's already been exposed that the captain was told twice to sleep on that boat by his dispatcher. And when it took off in the morning he was not asleep, he was in the shower getting ready for work in plenty of time on the boat that he was told twice to sleep on and work on the next morning. This is a fact. Do you think KOMO or any other news organization will ever print a retraction? No. It's much juicier to let the lie stand. It fits in nicely with their agenda.
 @Razor You are %100 correct! And by the number of comments blaming the "Unions" or "Workers not showing up in time" WSF management has succeeded in making a scapegoat of it's own Captains and crews, diverting the blame from the actual reason Vessels are not sailing...WSF Dispatch mistakes. Also factor in that WSF downsized the crews (Against USCG advice) to Minimum Staffing levels, any time a relief was either not dispatched or sent to the wrong watch or vessel, sailings were cancelled and WSF blamed it on Staffing Errors and insinuated the crew was to blame. This was entirely untrue in almost every case. I know the Captain involved and he is taking all the blame even though you are correct. Notice that David Mosely is carefully using the term "Human Error will still occur" in his speeches, insinuating that the Crew members are to blame for missed sailings? That is really code for Dispatch Management Incompetence.
 I bet NONE of the readers here drive to work the night before their shift on their own time and try sleep aboard a running ship with hardly any heat just so they can be on time and perform their job safely. This routinely happens aboard almost any Watch in the Fleet.
 One last thought...The Captain taking the blame has carried many thousands of passengers safely across the Puget Sound day and night in all weathers. He is a highly experienced Master Mariner and a consummate professional. He would not make such a poor lapse in judgement as widely indicated in the articles posted on this site and others.
 Shame on those at WSF for throwing him and the Crews under the bus to cover up its incompetent Dispatch management.
KOMO needs to follow up on this and expose the real culprits here .
 @Seadog  @Razor BS. That was clearly a union action. You can say otherwise but the data clearly shows a significant spike in cancellations because of 'sick' workers, that coincides with the reduction in staffing. The union was creating a problem for riders to force change. They should all be fired.
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 @giveitarest  @Seadog  @Razor giveitarest- What you saw was data indicating that there was a spike in the number of cancellations due to workers calling in sick. That would seem to indicate that more workers were calling in sick, right? Wrong. The number of workers calling in sick stayed about the same. What changed during this time was WSF management removing all but the minimum number of crew absolutely required for the boat to be able to sail. If a worker calls in sick it is management's job to replace them. They failed to do that in a good number of cases either through dispatch error or simply not having enough people available on call or on overtime. There were cases where it was the workers fault, too. Those things happen anywhere. When there is absolutely no margin for error those mistakes get magnified. Blame management for that. Be careful what "data" you are fed by WSF management. They have an agenda, they have scapegoats, they have smoke and mirrors, and they are massaging the media who will gladly overlook a few key facts to get out a nice juicy story about ferry workers. They are both depending on you to buy into it and it doesn't appear to be all that difficult.
 @Marinechiefengineer  @giveitarest  @Seadog  @Razor great comment MarineChief. It is not the fault of the crew. Management issues and a lack of dedicated funding are the culprit.
Thanks for all that you do!
 @giveitarest  @Seadog  @Razor Where are these printed facts about workers calling in sick. We need to see the facts. I bet there are none. The Union provides quality people. Thats it. A skilled labor pool. We commit our lives to this career. We continue our fire fighting and first res ponder training and security training and crowd management on our own time to do our jobs the best we can and to meet our oath to the USCG. We try our best to get the people across safely. Dont sucker into the anti Union hype.Â
They need to double the fare on the Bremerton route. It only captures 40% of operating costs at the fare box, opposed to >110% on both of the other Central Sound routes (BI-SEA, King-Edm).
Then again, why don't we stop having the ferries pay gas tax on their diesel fuel and increase bus fares to cover at least 50% of operating costs?
 @nkroadcaptain okay, a little information for you... M.V.'s & Train's use DYED Diesel not to be confused with Normal (CLEAR) Diesel you use in a semi/truck/car as Dyed is NON-Taxable/NON-Road (( Penalty\Fine if you get caught using it on the road )) USE Type Fuel and depending on what you get there are many differences... as you can get Dyed ULSD, LSD & HSD but for regular vehicles that drive on roads they can only get CLEAR ULSD & LSD - Almost phased out though ) and the difference for them are ULSD 15 PPM Sulfur / LSD 500 PPM Sulfur / HSD 5000 PPM
http://www.dieselnet.com/standards/us/fuel.php
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M.V.'s, Train's,Generator's, Construction Equipment & More Mainly Use Dyed Diesel (HSD & LSD some do run on ULSD depending on the clients demands for area's of operation/epa demands or the motor manufacture's requirements)
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so you know that if it is DYED Diesel there is not Gas Tax Associated with it.
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Did you know that when you buy gas or diesel for stuff you use that does not go on the road ( I.E. Generator, Weed eater, Lawn mower & Etc... if you save the receipts for it you can get the form from Wa. St. to get the money back from the taxes as long as you can prove it as long as you meet their minimum gallon amount.. you will have too look @ there form
HREF>http://www.dol.wa.gov/vehicleregistration/ftrefunds.html
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hope this information gives you some information..
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BTW - I deal with Fuel and have for the last 8+ years i have delivered to every type of tank/vehicle from In Ground/Above Ground, Boats, Fleet Fueling to Truck/Trailer and Products from Oil thru Jet/Av Gas as I Haul Fuel for a living.
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Sincerely,  Fuel Tanker Driver
 First off, most tickets you buy still say Bainbridge which manipulates the statistics quite a ways if that is what they use them. Secondly, transportation gets subsidized no matter what mode. Sales tax money depending on where you live and property taxes pay for, you guessed it, ROADS! Take a look at your tax statement sometime.
 @nkroadcaptain I could be wrong but most gas docks don't charge the road taxes on fuel.  If you are in fact right then the state is stupid.Â
Maybe if the folks that use the ferry system paid for the true cost of running the ferry system these things wouldn't keep coming up. Â However the ferry system always has their hand out for more tax dollars. Â I say raise the rates to cover 100% of the operating/maintenance budget or privatize the system, fire all union workers and start over.Â
 @CB do you pay 100% of the costs for your roads? of course not. You are suggesting every road be 100% covered by users? Ok, lets get to work on tolling every state highway.
 @CB If the rates were raised to cover the entire operational costs the rates would double, or maybe even triple. That is simply not feasible.
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As for privatizing, that also is not feasible for the same reason.
 @Furd  @CB To add to that http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2010/jul/24/could-wsf-follow-the-course-that-bc-ferries/ They did that north of the border, same subsidy, higher fares. Where everyone gets screwed.
 @political_i  @Furd  @CB Thanks for sharing.
It's not like you don't pay enough for the trips. Shocking how expensive it is. Â While there are other ways to Seattle from Bremerton, the people who live on islands are the worse affected.Â
 @TrT It all started going downhill after they banned smoking areas.
Do we really have to go through this again KOMO?
Ya ditched Schram, so ya gotta keep bringing this up without him?Â
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Beat the horse some more cuz yer readers are too stoopid to understand what they voted for. And they're STILL too stoopid.
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No amount of reguritation will change anything. Ya get it or ya don't.
Very happy to have broken my dependency of the WSF. Â Back in the day they would actually go on strike and leave us stranded either at home or across the water -- no alternate routes to Vashon.
The Inland Boatman's Union needs to do something or allow the State to make it more painful for them to "fall asleep" or "just forgot" or any number of excuses they come up with for missing a sailing. The State needs to have more standby workers available to cover for these slackers that are causing the cancellations of runs. Now they are not responsible if they get drunk, fall overboard, or just decided they have a case of "Sunshine Flu" and decide not to go in, and the State can not do a damn thing about it. Again the union is running the ferry system instead of the tax payers.
 @LongBeachBum Are you saying you have never called in sick because you were sick, your kids were sick or your car broke down? Maybe it is just the union workers that should not be allowed to call in sick for any reason?
@LongBeachBum oh yeah it's always the unions fault. This is the one group you can't screw over with poor pay. Lol
Maureen Jann says "This is a highway. There is no getting around that -- this is a highway. They wouldn't treat the highways this way, so why would they treat the ferries this way?"
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But Jann, just take a look at the highways - WADOT DOES treat the highways this way. The condition of many state maintained roads is beyond deplorable. In fact the entire section under the surface of I-5 through downtown Seattle needs to be replaced and has needed it for many years.
With all the problems and issues surround the ferries in the past years, I say fire the whole staff (including administrators & maintenance included) and start from scratch with people that want to work and not just get paid.
 @gwgJX Unfortunately you will still be fighting the Unions and they run the ferry system, not the State.
Well, like I said last night. Here is the Wahington State DOT at it's finest. Maybe they need some real buissness people running things instead of the dead weight that they have down in Oly town. YA THINK!!
@glideman this is part of Agenda 21
Again?