The Tacoma

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Residents around Puget Sound love their ferries, know them by name, class, and their histories. It's the largest ferry system in the world. Winter is the season when Washington State Ferries are routinely pulled from service for scheduled maintenance. At the end of November, however, the Coast Guard had grave concerns about the 1927 vintage Steel Electric ferries (the oldest in the fleet) because one of them, the Quinault, was found to have substantial corrosive pitting to its hull, and that made it likely that sister ships Nisqually, Klickitat, and Illahee shared the same problem. The WSF decided to pull them from service just as Thanksgiving holiday travel was at its peak. This month the Chelan has just been pulled for its scheduled maintenance. This has left no dry dock space for the Winachee and the Spokane, also due for regular maintenance in January and February. With so many ferry routes affected and no back up ferries available, passengers and ferry staff alike are feeling very challenged by the situation. The governor advocated retiring rather than continuing repair of the Steel Electrics and asked legislature to fund $100 million US to build three new ferries.