I and other members of the Vashon Ferry Advisory Committee are anticipating Washington State Ferries to make substantial changes to the triangle route schedule. The resigned Vashon members of the Triangle Route Task Force believe Washingotn State Ferries (WSF) has independently decided there will be reductions in route capacity. To this point, Ferries officials have said no determinations have been made about changing or dropping any sailings and that public input will be sought if that decision is made.

Vashon ferry users, especially those who have seen ferries regularly loaded to capacity in the not-too-distant past, wonder what has changed. They want to know why WSF, a state-run agency upon which they wholly depend, seems determined to operate in the least-efficient manner imaginable, in spite of the misery caused for its customers.

For background, beginning about three years ago, the Southworth, Vashon and Fauntleroy Ferry Advisory Committees (FACs) met with WSF operations management several times over the course of two years. The meetings centered on the sailing schedule and route capacity. In late winter of 2016, we were all in agreement on toll booth changes, making some revisions to the schedule and not losing route capacity. A plan to begin ticket redemption at the toll booths and bypass pre-ticketed vehicles was to be implemented in the spring. The implementation failed miserably due to key management not being present and dock employees not properly trained. WSF stepped up and admitted the failure, but WSF was stalling on reimplementing.

The Vashon FAC produced and submitted a detailed plan in August 2016 to assist WSF with implementation of the redemption plan and pre-ticketed bypass. The response from WSF instead was what is now known as the Triangle Route Task Force, which was tasked with looking for a “quick win” for summer of 2017. The formation of the task force essentially abandoned the cooperative relationship and prior achievements with the FACs. Summer of 2017 is nearly done, and there was no quick win. In fact, the summer can be more described as a quick loss and has been the worst ever in terms of half-empty boats, incredibly long lines and extraordinary wait times.

Historically, the tolling operation was most efficient when paper tickets were used. It was quick, efficient and WSF got boats fully loaded using the bypass lane procedure. Then wireless scanners and barcoded tickets were implemented. The scanners proved to be much slower and the technological infrastructure was and still is incapable. More recently, ticket redemption was combined into the toll booths, which increased the total transaction cycle time.

Fauntleroy dock crews in the past skillfully filled the boats by directing pre-ticketed vehicles off of Fauntleroy Way around the toll booths, which greatly accelerated the loading process and filled the boats. When WSF ended that practice, they adamantly contended the practice is unsafe for the dock crew. In spite of the utter failure of current loading procedures, they refuse to reconsider. The end of that practice coincided exactly with long lines and disheartening wait times. This is the change that has made ferry travel so discouraging and islanders so angry.

WSF has decided this derated dock processing capacity is the basis for a decreased capacity schedule revision. Although this is convenient for WSF, the customers are paying a dear price for extraordinarily poor customer service. It will make no difference in the length of lines and wait times. If we let WSF revise the schedule, life on our islands will never be the same and we will never recover that lost capacity. Travel on and off the island would likely become an unacceptable proposition for commuters, who are the backbone of our local economy. There is little doubt that making travel off the island more difficult would make life more difficult for every single Vashon-Maury Island resident, the consequences of which we can only guess. We anticipate there will be a WSF-hosted public meeting on Vashon in September on this matter, the date to be announced. This will be a critical meeting for Vashon residents to attend.

Today, social networking has really helped the Vashon community to communicate, coordinate and document the issues at Fauntleroy. The Vashon Ferry Advisory Committee Facebook page recently changed from private to public status, and we welcome anyone to have a look at the documentation. At present, a grassroots-originated petition by Kathy Abascal is being routed both in hardcopy and online to draw attention to the Fauntleroy dock issues and to promote WSF to actively pursue dock efficiencies. I urge Vashon and Southworth residents to sign it.

I remain concerned as ever that the Triangle Route Task Force is fast-tracking a reduced capacity schedule to support a dumbed-down dock operation at Fauntleroy. As demonstrated in years past, when given the flexibility to operate the dock creatively and given the right tools, WSF employees with boots on the ground have really been successful at filling boats. WSF management and legislators need to pay close attention to issues at Fauntleroy to ensure boat and dock infrastructure assets are managed efficiently with customer service as a top priority.

— Jan Stephens is a longtime member of the Vashon Ferry Advisory Committee.