Washington State Ferries will host an open house from 6 to 8 p.m. at Vashon High School this evening about its most recent schedule proposal for the triangle route. WSF will conduct the meeting in an open house format, meaning that no WSF staff will give a presentation and that people can attend at any point within the two-hour time frame.

WSF released the schedule last Monday after a preliminary draft this summer raised large concerns on the island. Some of those concerns still remain with the current schedule.

Greg Beardsley, the longtime head of Vashon’s Ferry Advisory Committee, and Steve Stockett, one of the people advocating for a pendulum schedule, said nearly identical words about this version: “It is not well thought out enough.”

Among Beardsley’s concerns is an approximately 75-car reduction in vehicle allotment between 6:45 and 7:55 a.m. from Vashon to Fauntleroy. Those spaces are added back in between 7:55 and 9 a.m., which may be too late for late for many commuters, he said.

Overall, Vashon has lost four sailings each day, three of them in the afternoon and evening. People wanting to travel between Vashon and Fauntleroy will face long stretches between boats — often an hour more — with two sailings going to Southworth before Fauntleroy. The current schedule, between 4:35 and 8:45 p.m. has departures leaving Vashon at 4:35, 5:10, 5:35, 6:35, 7, 7:40, 8:30 and 8:45 p.m. The proposed schedule in that same time frame has sailings leaving Vashon at 4:35, 5:45, 6:40 (via Southworth), 7 (via Southworth) and 8:20 p.m.

As expected, this schedule does not include any single-destination sailings from Fauntleroy to either Vashon or Southworth. Now, each boat will be a dual-destination sailing, but WSF has not provided vehicle allotments for peak or off-peak travel for the afternoon hours or indicated how it will prepare for and handle the resulting new traffic patterns.

“My biggest concern is that Southworth cars will take over and Vashon cars will get stuck in line,” Beardsley said.

Stockett said he believes the lines in Fauntleroy will be longer with the proposed schedule than they have been during the evening rush hour.

“They (WSF) are trying to solve the symptom, not the problem,” he said.

Beardsley shared similar thoughts, noting that WSF has not addressed the bottleneck that occurs at the ticketbooth, when both ticketed and non-ticketed passengers go through the same line.

“You cannot fill the boats if you cannot get cars through the tollbooth,” he said.

Islanders are encouraged to attend the meeting this evening, ask questions of ferry staff and provide their feedback about the proposed schedule by the deadline of Nov. 9.

The proposed schedule can be found online at tinyurl.com/ybtb99uo.