Anticipated budget cuts are sinking service by the Alaska Marine Highway.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, the state ferry system unveiled a summer 2016 draft schedule that shows four of the state\u2019s 11 ferries laid up for lack of funding.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, the marine highway system is fighting for its life,\u201d said Robert Venables of Haines, chairman of the state\u2019s Marine Transportation Advisory Board.<\/p>\n
The Taku, Fairweather and Chenega will not run from May 1 to Sept. 30, 2016, the peak of the Alaska tourist season. The ferry Malaspina will run only from May 1 to May 25 before being laid up.<\/p>\n
The Taku was the first ferry to be laid up by cost-cutting efforts and has not moved from its Ketchikan moorage since last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is rather abysmal,\u201d Venables said. \u201cThis is definitely the lowest (service) we\u2019ve seen in a very, very long time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jeremy Woodrow, a spokesman for the marine highway, said the Alaska Department of Transportation is expecting further budget cuts when the Alaska Legislature meets in January. <\/p>\n
\u201cTherefore, we\u2019re planning accordingly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The state\u2019s fiscal year begins July 1, neatly halving the summer season. The DOT \u2014 parent agency of the marine highway \u2014 knows its budget through the end of June. What happens from July 1, 2016 onward will be decided by the Legislature.<\/p>\n
While no one knows what the Legislature\u2019s final ferry budget will be, almost everyone is expecting it to be lower.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reductions we saw as a department this year are about halfway from where we\u2019re going to go,\u201d Woodrow said, explaining the state\u2019s estimate.<\/p>\n
Less funding means less service. Unlike a hard-surface roadway, which can defer pothole-filling and maintenance but remain passable, the Marine Highway needs to pay for staff, fuel and maintenance to convey cars.<\/p>\n
In summer 2014, the state\u2019s 11 ferries provided a combined 212.9 weeks of service. In summer 2015, that dropped to 184.3 weeks as a result of budget cuts.<\/p>\n
\u201cNext year, we\u2019re proposing 145 weeks of service,\u201d Woodrow said.<\/p>\n
That figure does not include time out of service for breakdowns \u2014 every year has them \u2014 and with fewer boats in service, any breakdowns will have a bigger effect on schedules.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith less ships in the water, we\u2019ll have less flexibility to move around the schedule to pick up passengers that may be affected,\u201d Woodrow said. \u201cThere may be times when people will be sitting for extra days or have to find alternative travel methods.\u201d<\/p>\n
The state is collecting public comment on the summer ferry schedule, but Venables said to make a difference, Alaskans need to also talk to state lawmakers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe really need to focus on the transportation needs and what is basic transportation, and make our case to the Legislature,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
After the public comment period ends, the summer schedule will be finalized before the end of the year. Reservations for the summer 2016 season are expected to open in December under the ferry system\u2019s new online reservation system. <\/p>\n
\nTO PARTICIPATE<\/strong><\/p>\n Written comments on the ferry schedule must be submitted to dot.amhs.comments@alaska.gov before Nov. 3. A teleconference to hear oral comments will take place Nov. 4. Call 1-800-315-6338 and use code 03902#. Southeast residents are invited to participate at 10 a.m.; Southwest and Southcentral residents at 1:30 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Anticipated budget cuts are sinking service by the Alaska Marine Highway. On Tuesday, the state ferry system unveiled a summer 2016 draft schedule that shows four of the state\u2019s 11 ferries laid up for lack of funding. \u201cRight now, the marine highway system is fighting for its life,\u201d said Robert Venables of Haines, chairman of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":426,"featured_media":30237,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[75],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-30236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/426"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30236"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=30236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}