ABOARD THE M/V TACOMA — As a watertight steel door glides open, the heat of the motor room gives way to cool, marine air. I’ve stepped into M/V Tacoma’s shaft alley, an inner cavity cradling the ferry’s whirring propeller shaft. Not far beyond, the vessel’s steel hull cuts a course through the Salish Sea.
Being here carries a special significance to me, as a longtime Bremerton resident and regular ferry user of 22 years. It’s a treat to see the underbelly of this 460-foot beast, which is all but invisible to the public.
The engines down here — and those who operate them — have been entrusted to cross the Sound for decades. But the Washington State Ferries fleet resonates in our lives in other ways. Way up on Tacoma’s top deck happens to be the place, on a rainy June night in 2007, I asked my wife, Rosemary, to marry me.
That’s why I think many Washingtonians have been so deeply disturbed about the ferry system’s largely preventable struggles in recent years. It wounds us when these critical marine highways are canceled or delayed and cause missed doctor’s appointments, work and school. But even for those not dependent, it is also a visceral disappointment to see a Northwest cultural icon in a tattered, unreliable state.
Which brought me to the lower decks of the Tacoma recently. My engineer guide pointed to welded shelves where, within this cavernous space, the state plans to add racks of lithium-ion batteries.
Under Gov. Jay Inslee, Washington State Ferries is not just ordering new hybrid-electric ferries, which can run on both diesel and battery power. He’s also called for existing ferries, Tacoma included, to go hybrid to lower their carbon emissions.
But let’s face it: Trying to convert the state’s most reliable vessel class has been fraught with delays and is millions of dollars over budget. The M/V Wenatchee, the first attempt at hybridization, will bob at Vigor Shipyards at least double the year expected, with costs mounting.
Two of its four engines were destroyed, reducing the reliability of one of the vessels they call “The Cadillacs of the Fleet,” as the engineer described them to me. It should be in service when it’s needed most.
Time to stop the bleeding. As The Times’ editorial board recently advocated, planned work on sister vessels Tacoma and Puyallup would be a mistake.
That’s not to say Inslee’s ambitious call for a decarbonized ferry system is wrong. But his path of transformation has come at great cost to the dependability of these venerable green-and-white vessels on our marine highways. Incoming Gov. Bob Ferguson and the Legislature have the colossal task of fixing it. Here are my five suggestions to help guide their work, gleaned from of interviews with experts, observers and many riders whose lives have been interrupted by frequent service delays.
Fix #1: Preserve the current fleet
The foremost goal now needs to be preparing for newly built hybrid boats while doing everything possible to preserve the overwhelmed ferries of the present.
Taking the Tacoma out of service for the summer of 2025 and, possibly during Seattle’s World Cup summer of 2026, is a recipe for disaster — not just resulting in continued hardships for ferry riders but a black eye on the state’s image on an international stage.
The first new hybrid-electric vessel is due in 2028, if we’re lucky. Meantime, vessels like the fleet-oldest Tillikum, built in 1959, are money pits kept on life support because you just can’t run down to a used car lot to buy a double-ended roll-on, roll-off ferryboat. Sixteen — yes, 16 — new boats are needed by 2040, under Ferries’ long-range plan.
Legislative leaders need to boost funding to handle the backlog of deferred maintenance. Wait too long and one of the critical ferries still in service may find itself permanently laid up. The now-defunct M/V Elwha provides a cautionary tale — the Legislature balked at the $35 million repair bill for the buildup of steel corrosion, and the vessel was mothballed. Now, the system is desperate for boats.
Fix #2: Prepare for the best (electrification) but expect the worst (high bids)
State leaders and, well, anyone observing the ferry system are cautiously hoping for affordable bids on a new class of the hybrid 160-auto ferries. The Legislature budgeted $1.3 billion, intending to build five. No U.S. shipyard has taken on a hybrid-electric project of this scale before, which elevates the risks.
The real savings for going hybrid-electric will come when the terminals are electrified. But that’s no easy task. New power lines, including an undersea cable at Colman Dock in Seattle, must be laid. The state is designing a tide-responsive robotic arm to charge the hybrid-electrics, a total $4 billion program that will take time to build out.
Should bids come back too high for the hybrids, the state may need to consider more extreme options: a state of emergency and even a waiver to the Jones Act, a 1920 law requiring the vessels to be built in the U.S. By comparison, Victoria-based BC Ferries has been getting hybrid-electric boats from shipbuilders in Europe.
Fix #3: Boost pay below decks
Following years of chronic underinvestment, Inslee and the Legislature have made good on the promise of bringing in a new generation of mariners to work the vessels in the past few years. One key hurdle remains: The pay of the engineers and the staff that maintain these floating power plants has not risen commensurate to those working above decks. Wages of a captain are almost 20% higher than the chief engineer, a metric that is generally matched equally in the world of maritime.
Why should lawmakers care? A retirement cliff is coming that new mariners cannot fulfill. Experienced crew are needed. Shortages of the most qualified engineers are often the reason for vessel cancellations. The system relied on an unsustainable 81,000 hours of overtime paid to them in 2023.
The ferry system has a key advantage in the maritime industry — workers can sleep in their own beds after a shift. But the pay gap cannot be so wide in an industry willing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to those willing to go on the high seas.
Fix #4: Elevate state Ferries chief to the governor’s Cabinet
Part of the reason the state is in this mess is that for almost a quarter-century, ferries got lost in the churn of other demands within the Washington State Department of Transportation.
That must not happen again. This year, Rep. Greg Nance, D-Bainbridge Island, is planning to introduce a bill that would elevate the Washington State Ferries chief to the governor’s Cabinet. This bill should pass to ensure the needs of the ferry system remain visible to governors from here on out.
I was shocked to learn a year ago the state has never undertaken a full economic impact study on the overall marine highway system. Its value, as well as the detrimental effects of a ferry cancellation, should be known to policymakers. These days, we’re learning those lessons the hard way.
When a vessel is canceled on a peninsula, the result in communities like Bremerton is for residents to simply “drive around” through Tacoma. This boosts those planet-warming gases Inslee so painstakingly worked to prevent. But when there’s a cancellation for islands like the San Juans and Vashon, there is no alternative. What are the total costs to the state?
A Ferries chief, armed with that information and within reach of the governor’s ear, would be helpful in keeping these marine highways funded sufficiently and provide additional accountability.
Fix #5: Lay the groundwork for more ‘mosquitoes’
In the future, lawmakers should be flexible in thinking about the most efficient way to transport people back and forth across the Salish Sea, the inland marine waters of Washington and British Columbia. They may not need to operate some car ferries at all. Passenger ferries to Bremerton and Vashon Island operated by counties have picked up the slack during the current collapse of state service. The state abandoned its own passenger ferry service years ago due to financial constraints.
But funding from the state’s new Climate Commitment Act changes the calculation. The CCA can fund research into groundbreaking new battery-powered vessels that can operate with a winglike hydrofoil that lifts the boat off the water. Sound far-fetched? Artemis Technologies, a Northern Ireland boat builder, is set to launch the first 150-passenger model this year on a Belfast route.
Ferguson and the Legislature can further these developments and continue subsidizing counties with their own ferry service. Increasing density around transit has been among many lawmakers’ goals recently. How about also thinking about density around ferry terminals? Reliable passenger service, when married with land-based buses, makes carless travel possible and more likely. And getting people out of vehicles is the greenest way forward possible.
In 2026, Washington State Ferries will mark 75 years since the state began operating this venerable system. Ferguson and the Legislature must not fail in the task of returning it to its former level of service and reliability, while also reducing carbon emissions. With good planning and investment, they can help all of us once again make critical crossings and, sometimes, some precious memories along the way.