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WASHINGTON STATE FERRIES |
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Fall ferry schedule begins SundayThe fall sailing schedule goes into effect on Sunday, Sept. 27. Significant changes are included due to the need for adherence to Coast Guard touring watch regulations. Crews must have a certain number of hours off between shifts. In order to have a 6 a.m. boat leave from Friday Harbor, the last sailing from Anacortes is now an hour earlier at 7:25 p.m. every night but Friday for Friday Harbor and Monday through Thursday for Orcas and Lopez. Shaw Island's last sailing is 6:35 p.m. Other changes include eliminating the Sunday eastbound 4:15 p.m. sailing from Orcas to Anacortes, eliminating the Lopez stop on the 4:30 p.m. sailing from Anacortes, and eliminating the Shaw stop on the 7:25 p.m. sailing from Anacortes.
Roundtrip sailings to Sidney, B.C. from Anacortes will be reduced to one per day. It will leave Anacortes at 7:45 a.m. and depart Sidney at 11:40 a.m . You can pick up a fall sailing schedule at the nearest ferry terminal or online at wwww.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries The ferry advisory committee plans to interview drivers in the Friday Harbor 6 a.m. ferry line in the fall to see if it would work for them to leave a half hour later in order to possibly change future schedules. The San Juan Ferry Advisory Committee works with Washington State Ferries to make the schedule. The FAC consulted with the Post Offices and commercial drivers said committee member Rob DeGravre. He said the FAC did not have time to change the schedule when the decision was made in July to change the last sailing to 7:25 p.m. The earlier sailing was considered workable as the FAC believes there is more demand for morning sailings than for the late sailing. DeGravre also said the 8:25 never overloads whereas the 5 and 6:25 p.m. sailings do. Earlier late boat affects school sportsposted 09/23/2009
The last ferry is at 7:25 p.m. for Friday Harbor except for Friday night. For Lopez and Orcas, the last boat is at 7:25 Monday through Thursday. "We understand, we don't drive the ferry schedule," San Juan Island School District Athletic Director/Maintenance Supervisor Rod Turnbull said. "This will definitely affect our winter sports schedule." Several junior varsity games will be dropped in the fall season in order to get the varsity games done in time. Altering the school sports schedule is not an option at this time, since it would create a domino affect with the other teams. "We schedule a year in advance," Turnbull said. "This definitely threw us for a loop," said Larry Berg, Lopez Island School District Athletic Director, PE teacher and football coach. "It's hard enough making the 8:25." He noted Lopez has to travel south of Everett for some of their games and the traffic jams add to the difficulty of returning in time. "We've made committments to the League," Berg said. Other schools don't want to move games up to 1 p.m. and if they did there aren't officials available anyway. Many of the schools Lopez plays have one gym so the girls and boys teams can't both be playing which would save time. Neither Berg or Turnbull were contacted by anyone from the ferry advisory committee about the change. Coast Guard approves touring watches for Fall Ferry Scheduleposted 07/14/2009 Sutton praised the work Councilmember Howie Rosenfeld had done working with legislators to accomplish the change in Coast Guard policy. The rest of the council thanked Rosenfeld for the job he had done and all the hard work he had put into it. The Coast Guard will reevaluate the decision at the end of the Fall Schedule. If all goes well, touring watches will continue. If not, the winter schedule will be a transition period, Rosenfeld said. Changes in service on fall ferry schedule
posted 06/15/2009
Traditionally WSF has crewed its boats on the Anacortes-San Juan Islands-Sidney routes using what are called "touring watches". Crews work two shifts totaling 16 hours with an on-board rest of typically 8 hours between the two shifts. The first shift is normally almost 10 hours. The crews then have the following day off. Following complaints by some down sound, crew members that touring watches are stressful because of extended work hours and minimal sleep, the Coast Guard has determined that touring watches are unsafe. The Coast Guard’s determination significantly limits WSF’s scheduling flexibility. First, WSF will now be unable to moor a mainland ferry at Friday Harbor overnight. Secondly, in the absence of touring watches, crew shifts are limited to a maximum of 9 hours under the provisions of WSF’s labor agreements. WSF has been negotiating with its unions to extend the 9 hour limitation to 10 hours, but to date we understand the unions have declined to do so. WSF has given our Ferry Advisory Committee a draft Fall Sailing Schedule that conforms to the Coast Guard’s new requirements and to the 9-hour shift limitation. In the draft Schedule, the sailing times for nearly all mainland sailings to and from Orcas, Lopez, Shaw and Friday Harbor change. The impact, however, of the elimination of touring watches falls primarily on morning service from Friday Harbor to Anacortes and, we understand, on US Post Office deliveries to San Juan Island. The draft Schedule replaces the 8:05 a.m. direct sailing from Friday Harbor to Anacortes with a shared 9:10 am sailing that stops at Lopez arriving in Anacortes at 10:35 a.m. This sailing is also likely to overload. The 11:10 a.m. sailing has been replaced by a 12:35 pm sailing. Typically over 60% of the Friday Harbor traffic boards ferries to arrive in Anacortes prior to midday. The draft Schedule allocates only 26% of total eastbound capacity to these hours. The net effect will be to make it difficult for San Juan Island residents to make mid-morning appointments in Anacortes or conduct a full day’s business on the mainland. The draft schedule incorporates numerous inefficiencies in the use of WSF’s assets. Because all ferries now start the day in Anacortes, eastbound service is skewed towards the afternoon and evening while eastbound demand is concentrated in the morning. In addition, there is a waste of resources late in the day as the boats are returned to Anacortes to get in position for the next day. The FAC believes that the draft schedule was prepared to meet the needs of the provisions of WSF’s labor agreements and not to meet the needs of the customers that WSF serves. It has informed WSF that the draft schedule will significantly and adversely affect our community’s ability to leave San Juan Island to arrive in Anacortes before midday, and may adversely affect mail deliveries. Thus the FAC has advised WSF that the draft schedule is unsatisfactory and must be revised. To date WSF has declined to revise the draft schedule. Our FAC has continued to request changes to the draft schedule from WSF. But given the provisions in WSF’s labor agreements, it is unlikely that WSF can in fact revise the draft Fall Schedule to restore service to current levels. Our County Council has also written the Coast Guard Port Captain for Seattle asking her to review the Coast Guard’s determination that touring watches are unsafe. We understand that no crew member on our routes has complained about touring watches. We also understand that the overwhelming majority of the crews on our routes favor touring watches. We also understand that some members of the crews on our routes have also petitioned her to reconsider. On Thursday June 11, 2009 WSF will be conducting a meeting with our community on board the interisland ferry. We urge you to attend this meeting and voice your concerns. A copy of WSF’s draft Fall Schedule can be obtained from the County’s office; however, it is in a format that is not similar to WSF’s published schedules. |
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SAN JUAN ISLANDER © 2009 |
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