More than 100 people attended Washington State Ferries’ open house for its long-range plan last week at the Vashon High School, with many islanders commenting on the plan itself, and several also expressing concern about the potential schedule changes the ferry system recently unveiled.

The long-range plan, a 124-page document plus appendices, is intended to guide the ferry system until 2040 and makes recommendations regarding short-, medium- and long-term actions for WSF to pursue and challenges to address. This plan focuses on four main areas: reliable service, customer experience, growth management, and sustainability and resilience. The plan projects ridership growth of 30 percent between 2017 and 2040 and comes with a price tag of $14.2 billion to implement over 20 years, with dedicated tax revenue and fare collection projected to cover $7.5 million of that total. The Washington State Legislature will be asked to fund the remainder.

Currently, Washington State Ferries is in the midst of a public comment window for the plan, with comments due by Oct. 25. In a short online video, head of ferries Amy Scarton solicits feedback.

“We really need to hear as many comments from our customers and community members as possible,” she says. “We have boats that need to be retired and terminals to fix.”

Indeed, boats that need to be retired — and others built — is central to the plan, which states that 13 vessels out of WSF’s 22-vessel fleet will need to be retired and replaced in the next 20 years. The plan calls for building five new vessels as soon as possible, growing the fleet from 22 to 26 vessels and evaluating whether the current 60-year expected life span of ferries is realistic.

WSF’s Stephanie Cirkovich, director of Community Services and Planning, who attended last week’s meeting, said that she believes it is important that Ferries stabilize its fleet before it focuses elsewhere.

“First, we need to have enough vessels. We should have enough vessels for one to break down,” she said. “We have to get that house in order immediately and then (consider) service enhancements. … If we do not do that, it impacts every single route.”

Other elements that fall under the Reliable Service category include improving terminal infrastructure and establishing a workforce development plan, as 30 percent of the vessel workforce and 37 percent of the terminal workforce are eligible for retirement within the next five years.

Modernizing fare collection, including upgrading ticketing and reservations systems, falls under the Customer Experience section, as does improving pedestrian, bike and transit connections to and from the terminals.

In the Manage Growth section, key points include refining existing metrics and defining new ones to provide better planning data, spreading out demand beyond peak travel times, and prioritizing foot and bicycle traffic.

Key themes under Sustainability and Resilience range from developing a disaster response and preparedness plan to investing in hybrid-electric propulsion systems, a measure Gov. Jay Inslee has mandated.

While much of the plan provides a broad look at the ferry system as a whole, some elements are relevant specifically to the triangle route. The plan states that the Fauntleroy/Vashon/Southworth route “experiences lower on-time performance compared to other WSF routes.” It cites the dock as a problem, with limited holding space, no overhead loading for pedestrians and a single vessel slip.

Service enhancements, slated for the long-term — 10 to 20 years out — include extending summer services with more weekend hours into May and October and winter hours with a third ferry on the weekends.

The plan notes the 90-car Sealth will be replaced with a 124-car ferry. (That change is slated for June.) The plan also states that the “preservation project” at the Fauntleroy terminal is expected to improve operational efficiencies there. That is expected in 2025.

For Point Defiance and Tahlequah, two additional trips each day are recommended as service enhancements, again in the long term, a decade or more from now.

WSF Spokesperson Hadley Rodero said Ferries received about 40 comments about the long-range plan from islanders at the meeting.

Comments included those from people concerned that improvements for the Fauntleroy ferry dock and technology improvements there were not stressed enough in the plan, that a reservation system might be implemented in the near term, how the sailing schedule can better adapt to growth, and suggestions to split the triangle route into separate routes.

She noted that technology improvements, such as the implementation of the Good to Go! system, could take place within two years. Also, regarding the Fauntleroy dock, she said that the funding Ferries has is to replace the dock, which does not meet seismic standards. But she also said there will be a “robust planning process” that will address what additional needs should be addressed.

While many of the people who attended last week’s meeting focused on the long-range plan, many also joined a small crowd gathered around WSF planner Justin Resnick, who created the two draft schedules that many islanders have commented on and are upset about in part because of “layover” trips to Southworth and longer gaps between off-peak sailings.

Some islanders raised concerns about early morning sailings, which several people thought were being omitted, but in fact are not slated for any changes and thus were not included in recent draft schedules Ferries released.

Others asked about the data Resnick was using to create the possible new schedule, and others raised questions about the process itself, conducted so far with limited community outreach. In one exchange, islander Beatrice Crouch expressed concerns about the difficulty of longer ferry rides when Vashon residents have extremely limited health care services.

At the meeting and in a follow-up conversation Crouch said that she has a family member with an autoimmune disorder that causes her to bleed, sometimes heavily. Crouch has a plan in place with Seattle Children’s Hospital to try to get it under control at home, but they often need to go in. Crouch takes the family member herself, but said the situation would grow more urgent if they had to go by way of Southworth first.

Resnick suggested an ambulance — which he noted the ferries will always accommodate — but Crouch expressed reluctance. While her family’s situation might be urgent, it is not necessarily life-threatening, and they would not want to take away emergency medical services from someone experiencing a more critical situation, she said. Depending on insurance coverage, there may also be considerable expense related to ambulance transport.

Following the meeting, she spoke about her husband Jon Crouch, who died in April after a battle with cancer. He was wheelchair bound and traveled frequently to Seattle for chemotherapy, and once he had to make the trip simply for a chest X-ray, as the Vashon clinic could not accommodate him. Many islanders face such challenges, she said, and adding time to the ferry rides for such important services would create hardships.

“It will impact the quality of life for people in ways that they do not even know,” she said.

For their part, both Cirkovich and Rodero say they are hearing from islanders — and want to. Cirkovich attempted to curtail some of the questions at last week’s meeting, saying the purpose of that event was for the long-range plan, not the schedule. The group asking questions did not disband, however, and the following day Cirkovich said WSF does, indeed, want islanders’ comments — and will be seeking more of them in the coming weeks.

“We want to cast a wide net and get as much help as possible,” she said. “We want to hear from every voice that we can possibly hear from to get input on this.”

Rodero said she has received about 300 comments about the draft schedules, most of them from Vashon. She added that Resnick had been working with the Triangle Task Force on peak morning and afternoon travel, and the draft schedules he presented in August were his first attempts at knitting the two together, but were considered preliminary.

“Now his goal is to take feedback and further work the full-day schedule from start to finish into a draft,” she said. “He will do his best to address everyone’s needs and address peak flows.”

Comments abour the schedule can be sent to RoderoH@wsdot.wa.gov.

The next draft schedule is slated to be released next month. A public meeting will follow; it is set for 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 24, at the Vashon High School.

To read and comment on the long-range plan, see wsflongrangeplan.com.