Gubernatorial candidates focus on fast ferries, diesel power and personnel to fix ferries

Work commuters, travelers, medical patients, youth sports teams and more confront Washington State’s weakened ferry system day in and day out. On the campaign trail, gubernatorial candidates are laying out their ferry plans to fix the system.

The Washington State ferry aging fleet is plagued with disrepair, as only eight of the 21 vessels in its fleet are considered to be in a “state of good repair,” according to its 2023 performance analysis. While WSF completed 95.6% of its scheduled runs in the second quarter of 2024, 86% were on-time, missing its goal of 95% and dropping 4.3% from the same quarter last year.

The fleet’s reduction to 21 vessels in nine years from the previous 24 has been a major stressor, according to its 2024 service contingency plan, but repeatedly had only 13 in use last quarter, reported the Seattle Times. Meanwhile, Kitsap County residents are set back on a one-boat schedule until 2028.

As Gov. Jay Inslee, prepares to leave office in 2025 after announcing he wouldn’t run for a fourth term, candidates for his successor are telling ferry-focused voters they understand their exasperation with the system.

“I’ve spent a lot of time in Kitsap County... It's an issue that comes up repeatedly when I'm visiting with residents in the county, and what has struck me about those conversations is the level of frustration that people are experiencing,” said Attorney General and leading Democratic candidate, Bob Ferguson. “This has been a crisis for a long time, and not only is it not getting better, or at least staying the same, it seems to be getting worse.”

Ferguson wants to see the broken ferry system treated as a crisis that garners as much federal and state government support as the collapse of the Skagit River Bridge in 2013. Ferguson himself often avoids taking the ferry when he’s on schedule due to the unreliability, driving around to Kitsap County and flying into the San Juan Islands, he said.

Two Republican candidates echoed the sense that the ferry system is underperforming to expectations.

“Our ferries used to be a source of pride for all Washingtonians,” Republican candidate and former District 8 congressman, Dave Reichert said in a statement. “They are now riddled with cancellations and delayed hours for riders that often rely on our ferries as their main mode of transportation to and from home, for medical care, work, school, and to get basic necessities.”

“The Washington State ferry system is the largest in the nation and it used to be the best in the nation,” said Republican candidate Semi Bird, a retired military veteran, federal government worker and business consultant. “And it's not anymore. It's amongst the worst in the nation, and that's a shame.”

Approaching the November, 2024 election, Ferguson, Reichert and Bird have their own ideas on how to fix the ferry system, converging and diverging both on solutions such as passenger-only ferries, diesel and electric ferries and building out the workforce.

Applying the passenger-only ferry Band-Aid 

State lawmakers allocated $4 million to Kitsap Transit and another $3.2 million to the King County Water Taxi to support increased passenger-only ferry service to fill the gaps in reduced WSF service. For Ferguson, passenger-ferries offer a promising short-term solution while simultaneously pursuing a “multi-pronged approach.”

Providing funding is “a very specific action the State can take for relatively modest cost to make a meaningful, positive impact on this crisis,” Ferguson said. In Ferguson's ferry plan – that his campaign noted was released first among the candidates – Ferguson promised to partner with local governments to increase the use of passenger-only ferries.

Reichert made similar commitments, expressing a need to establish passenger-only ferry service “between the islands” coupled with a reliable emergency schedule.

Bird, however, remains to be convinced that such a temporary solution is the way to go.

“We don't want to spend millions of dollars for a short term fix just to do away with it right within a matter of years,” he said. “We need to be prepared to go into in-depth explanation to the taxpayers to justify the decisions we make and the expenditures we make. I always say it's better to crawl to success than rush to failure.”

Leaning into diesel 

WSF is currently awaiting proposals on two new electric hybrid vessels that could be delivered in 2028, with three more on the way in 2030, while working to convert the entire ferry system to hybrid-electric power by 2040 in an effort being bolstered by a $150 million contract with Vigor Marine to convert three of the vessels. But in the shadow of the decades-long timeline, a $3.98 billion cost for the endeavor and a strained fleet, the candidates are looking to diesel ferries for a quicker fix.

Republican lawmakers have been looking toward diesel-powered vessels as a solution, but new assistant secretary of WSF, Steve Nevey, said at a press conference on April 9 that diesel-powered boats would set WSF’s trajectory toward electric vessels back a year. Ferguson’s plan, however, aligns closely with his opponents as he looks toward diesel as well.

If elected, Ferguson will immediately issue request for proposals for two new boats that could be diesel-powered if it proves the quickest option, along with separate request for proposals for three new hybrid-electric ferries.

“If they're diesel, fine, so be it,” he said. “Let's get these things done and get additional ferries.”

Leaning in further, Reichert promised to fast track contracts for five new diesel-powered ferries to be put into service sooner than 2028. The ferries would later be converted to hybrid-electric and “will be more energy conscious, faster and less expensive.” Reichert, in his statement, criticized Ferguson for adopting the similar conservative idea.

Bird also championed diesel-powered ferries, saying “this isn't the diesel of yesterday. The diesel of today does not produce as much carbon emission as before and the systems of marine diesel are so much more refined… diesel is more cost effective than electric and (has better) operability in cost long term.”

Optimizing human capital in workforce

The gubernatorial candidates’ plans extend beyond the fleet itself and into the people that make the whole system run, as they make similar promises to support training and recruitment.

In the interest of keeping wages and benefits competitive for recruitment and retention, Ferguson promised to conduct a wage and benefit survey that would make comparisons to other industries that compete for the same maritime workers. He would also maintain programs for financial assistance in obtaining necessary worker credentials and look into state-supported hiring bonuses.

“Nothing drives folks more crazy than there's a boat that's willing to deliver passengers and cars, but there isn’t the staffing to operate the boat,” Ferguson said, voicing similar sentiment as his opponents. “That is truly maddening.”

Reichert plans to expedite the hiring and rehiring of former employees, support educational training plans at the community college level and offer on-the-job training for ferry operators and deckhands in order to curb service disruptions and overtime costs resulting from labor shortages.

WSF also received $10 million from the state Legislature in the 2024 supplemental transportation budget to add an additional ordinary sailor and engine room oiler to each shift to support service in the event of unexpected absences. At the same April 9 press conference, Nevey said hiring new employees is no longer an issue, but that training those new hires would take time. Five years down the road though, half of WSF’s most credentialed deck and engine room employees will be eligible for retirement, according to the service contingency plan.

In a similar analytical spirit, Bird’s top priority for addressing personnel issues is to conduct a needs assessment of training, staffing, retirements and work culture to synthesize a vision of a strategy of success and concern that will inform his strategy going forward.

Ferguson also has his sights on a shakeup at the top of the ferry system tree, planning to elevate the head of Washington State Ferries to a cabinet-level position in order to streamline direct oversight from his hopeful seat as governor, echoing an idea voiced by 23rd District Representative Greg Nance who also wanted to see the director appointed by the governor.

“I want the people to understand I view this crisis as a crisis and one way to demonstrate that is by bringing that person into those cabinet level meetings.”

After 33 years of service with WSDOT, the head of WSF, Patty Rubstello, recently stepped down in March, when she was succeeded by Nevey.

Bird is not inclined to implement the promotion, however, saying, “that is growing government, that's growing expense, that's not necessarily solving the problem. I would rather focus those assets and resources on the actual problem. I would rather put that money and resources in personnel in the ferry system. Not in a cabinet office.”

Bird plans to conduct a third-party audit of all state programs and offices to ascertain a “baseline of performance” in the interest of tracking performance and government expenses.

Ferguson hopes to be ready right out of the gate with reforms to implement on day one. If elected, Ferguson plans to travel to different ferry communities with his transition team, in the two months between the election and his swearing-in, to meet with business leaders, local elected officials and residents about the actions they would like the state to take in order to address the ferry crisis.

The Washington State primary will take place August 6 followed by the election for governor on November 5. The filing deadline is May 10.

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Washington State gubernatorial candidates lay out ferry system plans