Some Southeast Alaskans are frustrated by this year’s proposed summer ferry schedule. The planned level of service echoes the past couple of years, but remains thinner than decades past. At a virtual meeting on January 13, Alaska Marine Highway System leaders heard from a number of rural residents calling for a return to more regular and reliable ferry service.
Some Southeast communities will see daily or weekly regional service for the summer months, from May through September. The Hubbard will make trips between Juneau, Haines and Skagway daily. The LeConte is back in the water earlier this year, following steel repairs over the winter– that’s crucial for Pelican because it’s the only ferry that can dock at its current terminal, which is being replaced. And the Columbia will be making regular trips to Bellingham, hitting communities like Sitka, Petersburg, Wrangell and Ketchikan on its way up and down the coast.
Kake, a community of just over 500 people on northern Kupreanof Island, will see a few ferries a month. Robin Ross is a council member for the Organized Village of Kake. She said the reliability of ferry service has impacts on community health. She pointed to a cancelled trip in May of last year, which meant a mammogram van could not make the trip to the remote community.
“We did have community members that…couldn’t get in until October seen because it canceled in May, and they did end up having cancer,” Ross said. “So we need to make sure that the mammogram can always make it here, because the elderly ladies can’t make it on the plane, and we need to make sure we have a backup plan.”
Yakutat will not see a ferry this summer, with the exception of one visit from the Columbia in April before it goes into service for the season. Yakutat residents said the cuts to sailings in recent years had resulted in economic disadvantages and restricted access to medical care. Kip Fanning said the community had grown to depend on the regular service.
“When that stopped, it was detrimental to the people and the economics and the businesses in Yakutat,” Fanning said. “We’ve been patiently waiting, understanding that, you know, with COVID and…the employees that you guys had retired and move on and everything else. Here we are years later, and we’re still hearing about staffing problems.”
Marine Director Craig Tornga said the schedule had not bounced back due to a nationwide shortage of licensed workers. He said the shortage puts the ferry schedule in a vice.
“We’re just not able at this time to commit to a schedule that has both the Columbia and the Kennecott work in the same time due to crewing,” Tornga said. “The Kennecott is our ocean-rated vessels that carries the highest ratings for the crew endorsements, and we’re just unable to keep have enough crew to crew both the Columbia and the Kennecott, but our goal is to get to that point.”
State Representative Rebecca Himschoot (I), of Sitka, also called in. She echoed feedback from Yakutat and called for more regular service for Kake. She asked about the timelines for construction of new terminals and remodels, and asked about a recurring problem customers were having when booking electric vehicles.
“I’ve had a couple of different, I’m going to call it somewhat catastrophic for the consumer side, where they’ve been booked and thought they had a spot, and then we’re told they can’t put their EV on the vessel,” Himschoot said.
State ferries allow two electric vehicles on board per-sailing. It’s the only way to ship electric vehicles in the region after barge companies announced they would stop shipping them last year.
“We are grateful for all EV transport at this point. Expanding what you’re able to offer would be, again, ideal on the consumer side. At the same time, if there are going to be restrictions, we need those to be really clear.”
Tornga said electric vehicles were slipping past them in the online registration process, so all EV owners are now required to reserve a spot on the ferry over the phone.
Himschoot said she’d recently ridden on the Kennecott and praised the service and experience. It wasn’t the only positive feedback the state received. Jamie Bricker is Skagway’s tourism director.
“Skagways got basically daily service, which makes sense for the volume that we have,” Bricker said. “My only suggestion, I guess, and I’m sure logistics play into this a lot, is that on every other Monday, we’re absent a ferry, and instead, there are two ferries coming in on Tuesday, which is the Columbia and the Hubbard. That’s my only criticism, and take that with a grain of salt, because we’re very happy with what you’ve offered us.”
Not all of the feedback had to do with economics or access. Amelia (Kito) Gage lives in Sitka but is originally from Petersburg. She said the ferry plays a role in keeping communities connected on a deeper level, and she wanted the board to keep that in mind.
“We live now in a very difficult time in our country, in our world, with people separating and and divisiveness, and I think this can have a role in inviting people into closer communion with one another and dependence,” Gage said. “I would just like to offer that, as something that the people making decisions consider placing more in the forefront, is the the aspect of community health and relationships.”
The public input meeting lasted just over an hour. Shortly afterwards, state staff met again to hear feedback on southwestern Alaska’s summer ferry routes.
