New Washington State Ferries leader addresses staffing crisis, aging vessels

WASHINGTON — Washington State Ferries (WSF) has welcomed a new leader as the system is in the middle of a huge hiring and training push before the peak summer season.

Steve Nevey is the new head of the largest ferry system in the country at a time when some passengers express frustrations over major ferry delays or cancelations as a result of the staffing crisis, or when a vessel breaks down, such as the April 2023 grounding of the Walla Walla on Bainbridge Island due to bacteria and fungus in the fuel.

“I see it as my job to lay out a strategic vision,” Nevey stated at a Tuesday press event, detailing his career history in the maritime industry across all seven continents.

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"I think your crew and staffing is probably the most important thing. And, that’s a long-term thing and I know they’re working on it," regular passenger Simeon Baldwin said.

The most recent WSF data available from February shows that of the more than 138,500 sailings in a 12-month period, about 84% of them were on time.

Passengers on Tuesday said they're excited for Nevey to step into this role, and they'd most like to see more consistent schedules so they can make it to work and other important appointments.

"My wife has ongoing treatment at Fred Hutch Seattle Cancer Care, so we come back and forth a lot. The ferry disruptions make a big impact," Baldwin explained.

"Enough ferries to operate fully, consistency," Julie Piazza of Kingston added.

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A WSF spokesperson reports, in summary, that they've made progress in hiring new employees and training existing ones to higher positions, but their biggest needs are for licensed deck officers and engine room employees.

WSF currently runs 15 of their 21 available ferries daily. That's a drop from pre-pandemic numbers of 18 in the spring and 19 for the summer. Nevey said the arrival of new vessels is still years away, as WSF works to maintain its aging fleet.

"We’re getting ready to put out the request for proposals for the new electric-hybrid vessels, and we’re hoping that two of those will be delivered in 2028, and then the further three by 2030," he said. "We would like to work with our maintenance partners, like the shipyards in the region, to figure out how we can be better at maintaining our vessels to make them more resilient and more reliable."

In the meantime, Nevey anticipates service will improve thanks to $10 million in incoming state funds to add up to two additional crew members per vessel.

"That will avoid canceled sailings if crew members don’t show up. It won’t resolve all of those issues but it will resolve a lot of them," Nevey explained.

"I’m here to make ferries successful and rebuild ferries so that all Washingtonians and all of us can be proud of the ferry system again."

The former head of WSF, Patty Rubstello, left the role after about three years.