by MEREDITH M. GRIFFITH

Contributor

At a public outreach meeting on Orcas last Friday, Washington State Ferries representatives made a bold claim: they are committed to a wait time of 30 minutes or less for vehicle traffic arriving to board ferries.

“When you hit the back of that line, look at your watch,” said reservations manager Dwight Hutchinson. “Write down the time. Then note when you are staged for your boat. If it’s over 30 minutes, give me a call.”

The presenters emphasized that this spring and summer will involve an ongoing process of careful calculations, observation, specific customer feedback and continually reworking processes and staffing to improve the system.

“We’re here to listen to you,” said Brian Churchwell, vehicle reservations system program manager, promising to relay residents’ concerns to the appropriate management. “It’s your lifeline. We get it.”

Why reservations?

The reservations system was mandated by the state legislature as a way to serve increased demand by more fully utilizing existing terminal and vessel capacity instead of building bigger terminals and boats. Hutchinson said islanders saw reservations as a more attractive option than charging higher fees for peak-demand travel times, which could disproportionately affect lower-income households. It launched on Jan. 5, 2015.

Missing the boat

Many attendees expressed concerns that people with reservations could miss their boat despite arriving early, if high traffic causes the road to back up far beyond the ferry booths.

Churchwell told the Sounder: “On the Saturday of President’s weekend WSF did have longer lines, but as far as we know, everyone got on their reserved sailing. No one missed their reserved sailing. We had two sailings depart late to make sure we got all reservation holders. Someone in the audience said their friend saw he was going to miss his sailing and left. But we never received a call or report of this.”

Despite that event, Hutchinson said WSF has made significant progress on this front. He recalled an infamous day for islanders: July 3, 2008, when the ferry lines backed up all the way to the Anacortes Safeway. He said that on July 3, 2014, there were just as many travelers as that day in 2008, but due to newly implemented efficiency measures, the wait time to get through the toll booths was never more than half an hour long.

Attendees also asked for a special designated lane for locals or reservation holders in order to move traffic through the booths more quickly. WSF is looking at adding Good To Go electronic tolling system as an acceptable form of payment sometime in the next five years, but it wouldn’t be able to operate like the highway hot lanes due to the need to calculate the fare based on the number of passengers in the vehicle along with the vehicle size.  For safety reasons, the U.S. Coast Guard requires exact passenger counts for all sailings, as well as in-person inspection of each vehicle boarding the ferries.

But WSF presenters said they are working on several solutions for summer and holidays already, including opening more tollbooths; adding staff outside the booths with hand-held wireless devices to process incoming reservation holders; employing more effective staffing strategies; and developing automation that would eliminate the second ferry toll booth, or “tag booth,” which they called a “chokepoint.”

Long-term plans on Orcas include developing more public parking above the ferry landing to help streamline incoming ferry traffic, said Couny Council member Rick Hughes.

“Give us more space”

The second major concern expressed was that residents have lost the freedom to travel last-minute, even when a trip is truly necessary – such as family emergencies that don’t justify a medical priority loading pass. One person mentioned a friend who could not reserve space to get off island in a timely manner after a death in the family.

Many attending residents asked that far less than 90 percent of the space on each boat be offered for reservation, leaving more room for residents without reservations. Local small business owners, some with large commercial vehicles, said they need more freedom to travel last-minute in order to stay in business. Presenters made no promises in response, but listened attentively.

They also said they are working to develop better tools that will allow people to see which sailings still have space available, and which are unlikely to have room for drive-ups.

Other concerns

It was mentioned that the reservations website is unwieldy and unreliable, and Churchwell said a consultant has been hired to improve the site. Some said their experience with reservations phone support has been abysmal, with hours spent wasted on the phone trying to sort out issues while receiving conflicting information from different staff members.

“What I’m hearing is, we need to do some better training,” Churchwell responded.

Also, at present it’s not possible to make a reservation without a credit card for potential no-show fees; but the team said prepaid gift cards available at grocery stores will do the trick for folks who prefer not to use credit.

Traveling without a reservation

The team also explained that reservation holders retain priority over drive-ups until the vessel begins loading, even if reservation holders arrive less than 30 minutes before the scheduled sailing. They said that arriving later than the recommended time causes reservation holders to lose their “guarantee” of a spot, but workers will still do their best to get them on the boat – before those who drive up without a reservation.

Looking ahead

Hughes reminded islanders that the ferry Tacoma broke down in May, reducing ferry capacity by 20 percent.

“This is a tough time right now,” he said.

But the new ferry Samish will be christened on May 20 and sea trials continue until early July after which it will serve the San Juans.

Hughes encouraged islanders to give the reservations program a year before condemning it.

“I’m cautiously optimistic,” he said. “I hope we can fill more boats.”

If residents have trouble finding answers or resolution through the main customer service line, Hutchinson encouraged people to call him at 206-515-3652 with their concerns or with specific details about any bad experiences.

Customers can call the customer service team if they have any problems at 206-464-6400.  This number is staffed 7 days a week from 5 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.

“We’re not going to leave a system that doesn’t work,” Hutchinson said, adding, “We’re going to get you through that line in less than 30 minutes. We’ve been timing the lines since January, especially on Fridays. I can’t fix it in real time, but I can investigate to make things better.”