FERRIES: Here’s exactly how and when the upcoming Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth 3-boat service restoration will happen
(‘Live’ camera image from Fauntleroy dock)
In four days, Washington State Ferries plans to restore the Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth route to a full three-boat schedule, after years of reduced service. We asked WSF spokesperson Justin Fujioka exactly how the transition will be made. First, the boats – all three will be Issaquah class for starters, optimal for the schedule: “Issaquah is scheduled to replace Salish this weekend so Salish can go up to Port Townsend and prepare to enter service as that route’s second boat on July 4. We are planning to have that boat, plus Kittitas and Cathlamet, for most of our summer sailing season. The one exception is, Sealth is scheduled to replace Cathlamet for about a month starting in mid-August so Cathlamet can go in for some scheduled maintenance.” M/V Issaquah’s capacity – 124 cars – is almost double that of M/V Salish (which has been the “bonus boat” on the run for a while now), 64 cars. We also asked when the schedule change would take effect: “The new three-boat schedule will begin with the start of the sailing day on Monday, June 30. We will operate the entire sailing day Sunday, June 29, on the current two-boat weekend schedule, even departures after midnight.” Fujioka says that while they had some hoopla for the recent Bremerton service restoration, including a media event featuring the governor, that will NOT be happening for this restoration – WSF will just send out a reminder on Friday, including “details about the new updated backup two-boat schedule.” Comments about that schedule were requested back in April, as we reported with first word of the three-boat-service-restoration date.
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