The Whidbey Examiner is reporting the details. Here's an excerpt:
Washington State Ferries will accept Todd Pacific Shipyard's bid to build one 64-car ferry for the Keystone-Port Townsend route, Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen told the Island County Council of Governments Nov. 26.
"The bid has not been [made official], but the decision was made yesterday; we will be going ahead with one boat," Haugen said, adding that the announcement had not yet been made public.
"The bid has not been [made official], but the decision was made yesterday; we will be going ahead with one boat," Haugen said, adding that the announcement had not yet been made public.
The full Whidbey Examiner post by Justin Burnett is here.
(Ed. note: This news comes on the one year anniversary of the demise of the Steel Electrics.)
(Ed. note: This news comes on the one year anniversary of the demise of the Steel Electrics.)
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5 comments:
Build two more boats anyway.
Either that or get a new design pronto for the other two that works.
Gosh, we used to be the ferry capital of the continent...
We are, our fleet has 8 distinct classes of vessels and three sub-classes. The IH makes 9. The 144 class will make 10. The new design you promote makes 11.
Ever try to maintain 9 classes of ships with different features, electrical and mechanical systems. Just think of the investment in different spare parts, training and documentation.
Type "piston" into the inventory program and we get more than 20 different brands and sizes.
Then think of staying on top of those vessels individual weakness maintenance requirements and casualty propensity.
Then think of the legislative mandates requiring the organization doing all of this to be 4 times as cost effective as any transit agency in the country while the same legislature forces it to run inefficient services simultaneously.
Then think of our executive turnover, none stays long enough to learn the business, they are cowboys, lawyers, ticket sellers, airline people and the like. All move on to consulting jobs when they get their high years in or get vested. It is like having a new captain on the bridge every day, each with a different destination in mind, we zig zag more than a WWII convoy.
Getting another class or two or three in there is just breaking our backs. By the time they are delivered this management team will be gone and the next will begin their own journey toward a rewarding consulting job selling knowledge they don't quite understand.
Anonymous,
I'm on record as favoring three classes of vessels; Jumbo Mark II's, 144's and the new Island Home.
Capitalizing such a plan could take a number of years, but would be worth the effort.
Meeting the needs of the system 25 - 25 years from now will serve us best.
The parochial view of some communities and some politicians is very short sided.
I lived in Port Townsend for five years. The philosophy of give us a ferry big enough to bring enough tourists to keep the stores opened, and don't build a boat the would bring more residents is myopic.
A more realistic view is build us a system that will fill our needs 20 years from now.
OK - I'm off the soap box.
Captain, I respectfully can see the logic of your point. 3 or 4 classes of vessel with many interchangeable parts makes much more sense than the status quo.
It appears that "going ahead with one boat" means that WSF will be delaying or eliminating the 144 car program for several years.
The 144 car program started off as the 130 car program. The ship was widened under Thorne and lengthened under Anderson to be 144cars.
It was planned to build four of these 144s. Four complete propulsion systems were ordered and delivered, largely with federal money.
Then the cost of the boats was determined to exceed the original estimate so plans were reduced to three boats. The extra machinery to be used for a future buy of additional 144s.
Then the Steel Electrics were retired because someone believed that it would be too expensive to replace the bottoms of two ships and keep them running.
So the 144s and the Mukilteo terminal project were required to give up money to fund a makeshift steel electric replacement program.
But "Bob" did not work out. More money was required to build a bigger ferry for Port Townsend. A route which carries 3% of WSF traffic.
The need for more money to build the steel electric replacement meant the 144 project could only build one boat.
The new replacement for Port Townsend cost 25 million more than estimated and so the 144s are on Ice.
So in the end we have a combined 16million dollar repair on two steel electrics perform the following miracle:
1. Killed the 144 car program, at least for now and ensuring that in the future it will cost much more as the price of steel goes up.
2. Forced WSF to build a Steel Electric replacement that is only marginally suited to the job and will expend more fuel that it's 80 year old predecessor.
3. Brought the Hiyu out of retirement at the cost of millions of dollars. The Hiyu was removed from service years ago as being too slow and too small to operate economicaly.
4. Saved the Evergreen Stae from the scrapeyard. This nearly 60 year old ship was essentially retired upon the delivery of the last Jumbo MKII. She has the last of the problematical Ross Hill controls which have been removed from the rest of the fleet after the Elwha's caused her to destroy the Orcas dock a decade ago.
The ES also needed millions to be made servicable. This ship has drive motors and reduction gears that first put to sea on destroyer escorts to fight Hitler's U-boats.
5. Then of course there is the lack of maintenance in Eagle Harbor the rest of the fleet gets because WSF has a shortage of vessels. With no 144s, this situation will be permanent for all WSF vessel sizes larger than the Evergreen State class.
This is just what I can think of at 0244 but I can't spend too much time lamenting the past or what might have been. It is time to brace for more crisis, MMH is at the wheel and we are headed for the rocks.
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