IFA petition urges WSF to improve the south end route

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, March 3, 2026

A petition launched by Islanders for Ferry Action (IFA) with almost 300 signatures is asking Washington State Ferries (WSF) to address what they call failures in reliability, transparency, and safety on Vashon’s south end route.

WSF pushed back on the idea that the south end route had failed its riders and said the route was among the system’s top performers in 2025, completing 99.35% of its scheduled trips and serving over 960,000 riders, WSF official Callie Meleedy said in an email.

But IFA says WSF should be doing more to respond to the community’s concerns, especially given that the island is entirely reliant on ferries to access critical emergency services and medical care on the mainland.

“You can’t think about emergency preparedness on Vashon without thinking about ferries,” IFA member Rick Wallace said. ”If we needed help because of some huge emergency on the island, our lifeline would be the ferries; it’s our only road.”

IFA member Wendy Aman says last summer, islanders started to notice more cancellations and delays on the south end run. The group wanted to know what was happening and submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to WSF.

The data showed that in the 137 days between June 3 and Oct. 18 of 2025, there were 62 days with delays of 20 minutes or more, and 18 days where runs were canceled.

“We just want to know what was going on and if they have, in fact, solved some of the issues that left us a lot of the cancellations and delays,” Aman said.

Meleedy said during this period, the route saw more riders, typical of the summer sailing season, which creates more demand and ultimately more delays and cancellations.

The route is also the only one in the system with higher ridership than before the COVID-19 pandemic. Meleedy says the current 50-60 minute cycle time no longer reflects this increased demand, and that WSF will evaluate scheduling on this route.

Of the 69 cancellations during the period, most were due to schedule resets, when a boat runs so late that it is dropped from the schedule. The rest happened because of things like crewing, terminal, and vessel issues.

On-time performance was lower, and 84.4% of sailings on the route departed within 10 minutes of schedule in 2025. Meleedy said part of the reason for delays is high whale activity on the route, which requires vessels to slow or stop, as well as emergency medical transports on the route.

In their petition, IFA is asking WSF to prioritize crewing on the route to help address the delays and cancellations. Full crewing is required by the United States Coast Guard, with even one missing crew member making a ferry unfit to sail.

WSF has stated publicly that it is facing crewing challenges posed by its aging workforce. In their 2023 restoration plan, WSF reported that 81 licensed deck officers and 86 licensed engine-room crew will be eligible to retire by 2027.

“They didn’t plan for the fact that the … staff that runs the ferries were all getting older and retiring,” Wallace said. “There was a gray wave on the way that could’ve easily been foreseen.”

Meleedy, however, says there are no ongoing staffing shortages on the south end route, and that WSF recently expanded training and promotion pathways to grow its pool of qualified licensed crew, and that they are focused on hiring and training entry-level and on-call crew.

IFA is also asking WSF to install an additional backup camera on the route. The current cameras only show the first 10 to 15 cars in line, and IFA members say an additional camera extending farther north is necessary to provide more transparency for riders.

Both Wallace and Aman say they’ve been hearing for years that WSF would install a backup camera, and it hasn’t happened.

“This is just a basic planning tool; it’s so easy, and the cost of this is very small compared to the overall budget of WSF,” Wallace said. “They could fix this if they wanted to… they just haven’t done anything about it.”

WSF says the area that extends farther north along Vashon Highway Southwest is not on state property and requires additional funding and infrastructure to install additional cameras.

Meleedy says WSF is working with the Washington State Department of Transportation and Puget Sound Energy to get a camera installed.

“We don’t have a definite timeline; the goal is to complete that soon,” Meleedy said in an email.

The petition’s final point of concern is that the dock has no backup generator, which provides power to the dock in the event of a power outage.

But Meleedy rejected that concern, saying the dock is already equipped to receive backup power from the vessel itself to run systems such as the movable bridge, an operation that is tested periodically.

Because the dock receives power from the boat, this requires “crew members to leap across the gap to connect the shore to the ferry generator,” in the event of an outage, the petition says.

“It’s just so shocking that this is still being done,” Wallace said. “If you had a generator, you wouldn’t have to do that.”

WSF says there are no safety concerns associated with crew members jumping the gap to provide power to the dock, and acknowledged that this happens.

The Beachcomber was unable to receive a comment from a south end ferry worker.

For Wallace and Aman, what they’ve observed on the south end route reflects ongoing dismissal and inaction from Washington State Ferries that has driven tension between the largest ferry system in the United States and the islanders who rely on it.

Wallace says the route is especially important as it serves as a critical safety valve for the island, providing a backup option if problems occur on the north end route.

“Speaking broadly, what we hear from the ferry system a lot is excuses, and we’re trying,” Wallace said. “If they really wanted to do something, they could do a lot more than they’re doing, and there’s a lack of commitment, a lack of will.”

According to the petition, IFA is still awaiting a response from the three decision makers listed: Gov. Bob Ferguson, as well as WSF officials Steve Nevey and John Vezina.

WSF does not have a comment on this petition.

Scarlet Hansen is a contributing reporter to The Beachcomber.