A 20-year plan for the Alaska Marine Highway System is being met with skepticism about the likelihood of funding for proposed improvements and questions about the inability to resolve current deteriorations in service such as the loss of sailings across the Gulf of Alaska.
Various concerns expressed during a webinar Wednesday came a day after U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) told state lawmakers “I fear that we’ve wasted a once-in-a-generation opportunity” to improve the state’s ferry system, due to a failure to properly use $700 million in federals she helped secure for upgrades.
The 2045 AMHS Long-Range Plan unveiled Feb. 28 states its intention is to modernize a ferry system plagued by a fleet of aging vessels that are unreliable and address workforce problems such as subpar pay that have resulted in crisis-level shortages. The plan details a three-stage timeline that retires seven older vessels and replaces them with six new ones, with the first three-year phase focusing primarily on stabilization.
“In this first phase AMHS will focus on stabilization in building service levels back to sort of historical baseline,” said Eric Coleman, project manager for the Elliot Bay Design Group, during the webinar that featured AMHS and other officials who helped draft the proposed plan. “And of course a key priority as we’re doing that is making sure that the service that’s being provided is reliable.”
Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy is widely criticized for failing to support the ferry system during his two terms, with actions such as proposing to cut its budget in half during his first year. But AMHS ridership has declined for the past three decades from a peak of about 400,000 passengers during the early 1990s to 185,000 passengers in 2024.
The draft long-range plan seeks about $3 billion in vessel and infrastructure spending, plus annual operating budgets rising from $173 million this year to $207.4 million in 2025. Dunleavy is proposing a $159.4 million operating budget for the ferry system during the coming fiscal year and relying on the federal government to provide the majority of those funds — which is at odds with Murkowski’s stated goal of seeing such funds used for infrastructure and vessel upgrades.
“We are about to enter the final year of our bipartisan infrastructure law,” she said during her annual speech to a joint session of the Legislature at the Alaska State Capitol on Tuesday. “We’ve delivered $700 million and counting for AMHS, but our system still isn’t modernized. It’s not on track for the long term. There is a plan for that, but it’s a draft on paper. So unless the state steps up on capital and operating expenses I fear that we’ve wasted a once-in-a-generation opportunity to be right by all who depend on our ferries.”
Similar sentiments about the lack and unreliability of service were expressed during Wednesday’s webinar by Gerry Hope, government relations director for the Sitka Tribes of Alaska.
“Lack of state investment in the AMHS has resulted in less frequent, less reliable and affordable service,” he said. “This has devastating impacts on tribal citizens. In addition to the negative impacts on timely access to health care to and from Sitka, tribal families are often unable to afford airfare to travel to events to other communities, reducing opportunities for tribal citizens to access health care, education events, arts and economic activities.”
Furthermore, “getting stuck due to unexpected ferry maintenance issues can have serious economic impacts on tribal citizens, including increased travel costs and the risk of losing employment,” Hope said.
Improvements suggested by Hope include increasing state funding so fares are more affordable — although the proposed plan envisions having passenger fares cover a larger percentage of AMHS’ costs over time — and relocating the Sitka Ferry Terminal from the west coast of Baranof Island to the east coast, which would put it much closer to neighboring Southeast communities.
Relocating the terminal would require building a road to the other side of the island, which is a recommendation in the long-range plan, AMHS Marine Director Craig Tornga told Hope.
A question about whether funding for the plan’s proposed projects is likely to be available was raised by Nancy Bird, a longtime official with the Prince William Sound Science Center in Cordova.
“I’m very concerned about how the current DOGE process back in Washington, D.C., and its draconian cuts, how those are going to affect our marine highway capital fund projects particularly,” she said, referring to Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency that is making vast cuts to employees and programs that in many instances judges are declaring illegal.
Tornga said Federal Transit Administration officials have told AMHS “continue the course” with major projects in progress with federal funds, such as a new ship to replace the 60-year-old Tustumena that has a total project cost of more than $300 million.
“We have the mainline replacement design funds as well, so it hasn’t affected us to date,” he said, referring to plans to replace larger ships making trips between Washington state and Alaska, as well as across the Gulf of Alaska.
However, cross-gulf sailings were halted in October of 2022 and are expected to remain on hold for at least the remainder of the year because the Kennicott mainliner is out of service. That was a concern of a couple of webinar participants who said its harmful to both residents seeking to move between communities along the route as well as the tourism industry — including AMHS since it is one of the routes that makes a profit for the ferry system.
“I would like to state how many outside travelers are wanting cross-gulf traffic to bypass Canada in some way with the ferry system,” said Stacey Quimby, managing editor of The Milepost. “Not having a mainline route for the last several years has hit a lot of travelers and I just want to speak up for them.”
The public comment period for the draft plan is open until March 30, with the proposal and comment form at https://publicinput.com/i56446.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
