Travel may get easier or be more of a hassle depending on whom you talk to when ferry reservations become a reality this January. While some islanders are all in favor of a guaranteed travel option, other islanders have gone as far as creating a petition against the new program. Whether you’re for or against reservations it is happening.
Starting Dec. 2 you can reserve a spot in the ferry line on all westbound sailings leaving Anacortes starting Jan. 5, 2015. Eastbound service is available from Friday Harbor and Orcas.
The reservation ball started rolling in 2009, when the state legislature directed Washington State Ferries to look at demand management versus an asset management solution. According to Brian Churchwell, program manager at WSF, this means not focusing on larger terminals and vessels, but rather looking at how to spread demand across the day to help fill some of the less-utilized sailings. Churchwell sounds optimistic that reservations will indeed make things better for traveling. For islanders, at least on the Internet, the response is not quite rosy.
Rants against reservations
On the “Friday Harbor Rant and Rave” page on Facebook there are 91 conversations with more than 31 people who commented on a thread posted by San Juan Islander Ashley Buchanan. She wrote, “I’m pretty outraged … I know some people have had to wait in line to get home every once in awhile. I have never waited in line more than an hour, maybe hour and a half tops! Do we really honestly think this system is going to HELP the traffic situation?”
People agreeing said it would hurt their ability to get off-island with short notice to run errands, that reservations should only be used on a seasonal basis only and that islanders are being forced to accept the new system.
Buchanan started a petition on change.org to be delivered to Secretary of Transportation Lynn Peterson. So far 259 people have signed the document. To read the petition, click here.
According to Churchwell, 90 percent of the vessel will be available for reservations and only 10 percent will be set aside for non-reservations. Any remaining space will be made available to drive-up vehicles. Originally WSF made 95 percent of the vessels available for reservations, but staff found that some sailings had slightly higher than 5 percent of vehicles using the ferry for emergency or medical issues, so they modified the reservation percentages.
“One of our key issues today is that on our highly desired sailings we have more customers showing up at our terminals than we have available space for the upcoming sailing. This causes congestion at our terminals and in our communities. Reservations will eliminate this congestion,” said Churchwell. “We don’t expect that our customers will need reservations on all sailings, at all times of the year. We have found on our Port Townsend/Coupeville route that there are many sailings that customers can arrive at the terminal without a reservation and are able to get onto that sailing.”
Raves
Kristine Bourland Brown voiced her support of the system on the “Rant and Rave” page by saying, “I for one am excited that I can plan my trips instead of getting there two hours in advance only to find I can’t make that boat. For last-minute and emergencies it was always a gamble anyway, what’s changed?”
Others voiced their happiness about the security of knowing that they will get on the next boat. Ferry riders with reservations will have to show up at least 30 minutes prior to sailing departure.
“We say no more than 90 minutes because we don’t want reservation holders arriving when we are staging/loading vehicles for an earlier departure,” said Churchwell.
Lopez and Shaw
WSF will continue the current limited commercial reservations departing Lopez. The new reservation system will not be implemented on Lopez and Shaw due to terminal holding area limitations and lack of demand, according to Churchwell. He added, neither of those terminals have the volume of overloads experienced at Anacortes, Orcas Island or Friday Harbor.
What you need to know
You can cancel or change a vehicle reservation until 5 p.m. the day before your travel date. WSF is required to collect a no-show fee of 25-100 percent of the fare if the customer misses a reserved sailing and doesn’t travel within the same day.
An automated reservation sign-up system will be available using Save A Spot online or by calling 1-888-808-7977 from 7 a.m. until 6:45 p.m. (hours will be extended to 7:45 p.m. during the summer).
For info, email Susan Harris-Huether, WSF customer service manager, at sharris@wsdot.wa.gov.
