Washington State Ferries impacted by limited vessel availability

The Washington State Ferry Chimacum went out of service on Saturday, Nov. 4, after one of its main engines threw a rod.

The significant engine failure has been estimated to take several weeks to fix, leaving the Washington State Ferries system with just 14 available ferries, to operate a system that needs 15 ferries to run its current sailing schedules.

To quickly restore the Seattle/Bremerton route’s reduced one-boat service, the Washington State Department of Transportation moved another vessel there within a few hours.

The downside for this side of the Puget Sound is that ferry came from the latest route to be restored in the WSDOT service restoration’s route-by-route prioritization, which is the Edmonds/Kingston route.

The Washington State Ferry Spokane is likely to be the only ferry covering WSDOT’s Edmonds/ Kingston route until at least December, when the ferries Chimacum or Walla Walla might finally return from their unplanned repairs.

With another five vessels already out for much-needed maintenance, a third of WSDOT’s 21 ferries are currently unavailable.

“We have no room to spare, and if we lose another boat unexpectedly, service on one or more of the three other restored routes will be affected,” said Patty Rubstello, assistant secretary of WSDOT’s Ferries Division. “We expect our vessel availability to remain very tight throughout the winter. We understand this is frustrating news. Please understand that we are working hard on options to avoid further service disruptions.”