Just how old is our state ferry system and what can be done about it?

Washington Governor Bob Ferguson wants to add $1 billion to the transportation budget to address the aging ferry fleet. As riders know, the ferry system is operating on a razor-thin margin.

The ferry service returned to full capacity last year with 18 boats available to be on the water. The boats carried over 20 million passengers for the first time since 2019. All great things, but some recent mechanical issues knocked a few boats out of service, leading to boat shuffling and delays. I’m not sure how many people understand how fragile the system is.

Ferry official warns lawmakers: system is fragile

Washington State Ferries Assistant Secretary John Vezina spoke with the legislature last week, spelling out just how bad it is. I don’t know a lot about boats, but they have shelf lives. In the private sector, boats or ships, think cruise lines, are retired much faster than our ferries.

“Boats (in the private sector) are kept in service for 20 to 25 years,” Vezina said. “Ours are expected to last for 60.”

And that means a lot of extra money to keep them in service.

The state ferry fleet is old. The oldest boat is 67.

“Five of those vessels are over 50 years old, and five are over 40, so 11 of our 21-vessel fleet is beyond the vessel lifespan that most maritime organizations would operate their vessels,” Vezina told lawmakers.

The average age of the boats is 35.

The legislature has not done a good job of funding new vessels, as the boats have aged. There was also a bidding process for new boats that was so out of whack that the state had to start over. Only one shipyard bid, and the cost was way over budget.

That’s why the legislature chose to open up boat-building contracts to out-of-state companies. That’s where we sit with the deal to build three new electric hybrids, but the first one won’t be ready until 2030.

“By the time we get our new vessels in 2030, between 2000 and 2030, we will have built seven vessels in 30 years,” Vezina said. “It’s hard to maintain a ferry service at that pace.”

What about more diesel boats?

A lot of people have asked if there is any way to speed up the process. For example, can’t the state just quickly build some older design diesel boats?

Republican State Senator Phil Fortunato brought that up last week.

“If we were to mix in some diesels, could we get more vehicles or more boats online sooner?” he asked.  “In other words, if we were to say, ‘Hey, we’re going to do three diesels and keep the hybrid electric,’ could those diesels get online sooner?”

The ferry service’s Vezina said no. The reason: the plans for those diesel boats don’t exist.

“The propulsion systems for those vessels, the manufacturer no longer makes them, so we couldn’t just continue building those vessels,” he said.

The state would have to start building those new diesel boats from scratch, and the timeline to build is close to what it will take for the hybrids.

“We are very confident in saying that we are on the fastest path, and that diverting to start building diesel would actually slow things down because of the process we’d need to create that design,” Vezina said.

There is no guarantee the legislature will give Ferguson the money to make improvements because lawmakers don’t like the funding source. As we talked about last week, there aren’t a lot of fans of raising the money by bonding our gas tax revenue.

Chris Sullivan is a traffic reporter for KIRO Newsradio. Read more of his stories here. Follow KIRO Newsradio traffic on X.

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