WA — Major commute news for ferry riders: Three boats were knocked out of service over the past week due to mechanical issues.
Justin Fujioka with the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) says their fleet took a big hit.
“Unfortunately, it’s been a series of unfortunate events that rolled out here in the new year. We have our teams working hard on these situations,” Fujioka said.
He says the Walla Walla on the Seattle-Bremerton route will be out for about three weeks.
“A blade on one of the vessel’s propellers sheared off, so the vessel turned around back to Bremerton and was removed from service,” Fujioka said.
He tells us Vashon Island’s Kittitas went down Saturday with an oil issue, and Seattle-Bainbridge’s Tacoma followed on Sunday with a different oil issue.
“Unfortunately, it was just a bad couple of days,” Fujioka said.
This means each of the three lines is down a boat, bringing longer wait times to commuters.
“Basically, this cuts service in half for Bainbridge and Bremerton; there are longer waits between departures,” added Fujioka.
He tells us that once the boats start coming back into service, they will put a ferry on the route that needs it most.
“We don’t have a big bench of boats just waiting around for when these things happen, so we will reassess what we do with the boats we have available,” Fujioka said.
WSDOT is asking everyone to use a little patience over the next few weeks as they operate on limited service.
Officials say the Kittitas could be repaired and back in service as soon as this week if all testing goes well.
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