The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities proposed Alaska Marine Highway System operating plan for May through September 2022 is now available for public review. After finalizing the 2022 summer schedule, a full year of ferry sailings will be available for booking for the first time.
Sam Dapcevich with the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities spoke with KSRM:
“We just finished up on public review for our winter 2021-22 ferry schedule. What’s new about this in the past, we always would take review at some point in the winter of a draft schedule for the summer. Now we’re able to push that up and release a full year’s schedule once this is adopted and finalized, which would allow for travelers to book way further in advance and it will allow for better scheduling of our maintenance on the ships and more reliability for businesses to plan around the schedule. What allowed this was Gov. Dunleavy forward funded the ferry system by 18-months and there was an increase to the ferry system budget by over $8 million. That is a big improvement, we believe.”
Dapcevich said that the locations haven’t changed, but:
“We did leave the possibility of adding the Columbia into service next summer depending on the demand that we get and also crew availability. There is a nationwide, and actually a worldwide, shortage of licensed crew. We’re dealing with that right now. We’ve got some difficulties with crew shortages.”
The operating plan is designed to meet community service needs and maintain regulatory and safety standards for the vessels. The schedule leaves room for the addition of the Prince Rupert if clearance requirements could be addressed.
The draft schedule is available here.