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Repairs to the Alaska Marine Highway System’s M/V Columbia are going to take longer than anticipated and it won’t return to service this year, according to Jeremy Woodrow, Alaska Department of Transportation spokesman. The ferry headed for dry dock in Oregon at the end of September to be looked over after divers in Wrangell reported a bent starboard propeller. After arriving in Oregon, the damage turned into much more, and the vessel will take around six weeks to repair, Woodrow says. “Up...
PETERSBURG – Ideas to reform the Alaska Marine Highway System were well received at Southeast Conference on Wednesday, but selling them to the rest of the state could be the largest gulf left to cross. Some of the plans presented by Southeast Conference and its consultants, Elliott Bay Design Group and the McDowell Group, are ambitious – they're exploring whether the system can be recreated as an independent transportation authority or a state-owned corporation similar to the Alaska Ind... Full story
The Alaska Marine Highway System’s M/V Columbia is scheduled for a trip to Oregon for repairs after divers noticed a bent starboard propeller late last week, according to Jeremy Woodrow, Alaska Department of Transportation spokesman. “Not a huge bend, but there was a noticeable bend,” he said. “That was the only visible damage the divers noticed.” Earlier in the week, the vessel was traveling Lynn Canal to Haines or Skagway when those onboard noticed a vibration. Soon after, it was discovered the vibration happened when the vessel exceeded...
PETERSBURG – Three packages of major reforms to the Alaska Marine Highway System went under the microscope on Wednesday at Southeast Conference. Facing an aging fleet, declining service and tightening state budgets, the regional economic development organization is working to rethink the $150 million transportation network serving Alaska’s southern coast. The Alaska Marine Highway System is an agency within the Alaska Department of Transportation. For most of its life, it has been managed by state employees and overseen by appointees of the...
The Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS) today announced the release of its 2016-17 winter schedule. Reservations are now available for booking at FerryAlaska.com, by calling 1-800-642-0066, or visiting ferry terminal staff throughout the system. The AMHS winter schedule covers ferry travel from October 1, 2016 to April 30, 2017. Fare information is availableat FerryAlaska.com or from reservations agents. Release of the 2016-17 winter schedule followed a public comment period held in May and June. The comment period is an opportunity for...
The Alaska Marine Highway System ferry MV Columbia will remain docked in Petersburg due to a mechanical issue with the vessel’s starboard engine, according to a news release. The vessel is currently docked at the Petersburg Ferry Terminal, and the delay will take a minimum of approximately 36 hours. A technician for the engine manufacturer is being flown in from Houston, Texas to diagnose the problem and assist with repairs. The technician should be in Petersburg tomorrow afternoon (Thursday), according to Jeremy Woodrow, Alaska Department o...
WRANGELL — Alaska’s state ferry system is embarking on a journey to make itself more financially viable over the next 25 years, as a process to refocus and possibly restructure, spearheaded by Southeast Conference. Representing the region’s economic interests, the SEC was first started 58 years ago in order to support establishment of what would become the Alaska Marine Highway System. Appropriately enough then, the organization will help to steer that regional transportation network into the future, after a memorandum of understanding to th... Full story
The Alaska Marine Highway System’s fall, winter and spring 2016-2017 schedule is now available online for public review. The comment period opened in May 19 and runs until June 22. Because the AMHS is such an important means of transportation for many communities this time allows the public opportunity to review and comment on the proposed schedule. “There are no major changes from this year to the previous year,” said Jeremy Woodrow, Alaska Department of Transportation spokesman. “There are less service weeks planned and that is because... Full story
Popular doesn't make it good To the Editor: Learning facts is important. Re-learning facts is also important, and sometimes exacting and painful. Take tobacco. Around 400 years ago people colonizing in Virginia learned to smoke tobacco from local Native Americans. “Recreational,” yet addictive, this poison began killing Americans. Only around 50 years ago the medical science started to prove the obvious - millions of people go to an early grave because of smoking tobacco. I’ve lost family members and friends, as has every person reading these w...
The Alaska Marine Highway System should become — at least in part — a private enterprise. AMHS has been in business for 50 years; like most businesses, it’s had its problems and it’s even come up with solutions within the realm of possibilities. But, its biggest problem, as many Alaskans have known for some time, is that its ever-changing executive doesn’t make for a consistently charted course. A new governor means a new state Department of Transportation and Public Facilities commissioner and deputy commissioners for the ferry system ...
Not a subsidy To the Editor: I wanted to thank you for your editorial several issues back about the marijuana law. I really appreciated your thoughts that, although you personally were against legalization, you did feel that the voters had spoken and that the process needed to move forward regardless of your personal feelings. This was a commendable position to take and expressed what our democracy is, or should be, all about. One “complaint” I do have is about your AMHS editorial in this week’s edition. You used “subsidize” and “subsidie...
The Alaska Marine Highway System brings more to S.E. Alaska than transportation. It’s also an economic driver for all of Southeast. Most of the benefits fall to small rural communities. For every $1 in benefits paid to subsidize the system’s operation, $2.30 comes back to local economies in jobs, spending, shipping and other services. The report from the McDowell Group states the ferry system is directly responsible for 1,017 jobs and indirectly responsible for 683 who are employed by businesses benefitting from the state ferries. Put another w...
WRANGELL — The Alaska Marine Highway System has been taking public comment for its ferry schedule for the coming summer. From Bellingham, Wash., to Skagway, concerned user groups of the regional transportation network participated in a teleconference, hosted in Ketchikan Nov. 4. A draft schedule has been available for review, and patterns in the draft have been based on an assumed funding level for the 2017 fiscal year, which begins July 1, 2016. Reductions in service to some communities over the previous year’s schedule reflect $25 mil...
Following their annual meeting last week in Prince Rupert, the Southeast Conference (SEC) will be going back to their transportation lobbying roots. The organization was formed in 1958 to lobby for a regional transportation system—now known as the Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS)—and members are coming together once again to address needed changes to that system. A resolution was passed at last week’s meeting to restore the Transportation Board of the SEC, which will push during the upcoming legislative session to change the Marine Trans...
Alaska Marine Highway Systems (AMHS) announced on Wednesday that repairs to the Columbia will take longer than expected. The vessel was delayed in Ketchikan earlier in the week due to mechanical issues with its exhaust system and propellers. Further inspection of the vessel revealed damage to the starboard propeller caused by striking a log. The Columbia is scheduled to return to passenger service August 31, according to the AMHS official notice. The Malaspina has been rerouted to replace the vessel until necessary repairs have been completed....
The Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS) canceled the service of the ferry Chenega from Juneau to Petersburg on Tuesday, due to severe weather including high winds. DOT spokesman Jeremy Woodrow said the conditions hitting Stephens Passage resembled that of fall storms. AMHS released official notice after the decision to cancel Tuesday’s service was made on Monday. Customers with reservations received phone calls alerting them of the cancellation. Schedule revisions can be found at ferryalaska.com, or by calling your local terminal. Customers c...
The Alaska Department of Transportation (ADOT) has cancelled the scheduled summer sailings of the M/V LeConte that would have utilized the South Mitkof ferry terminal due to maintenance-related delays of the Alaska Marine Highway System's (AMHS) vessels. Once a month sailings from May to September between Juneau, South Mitkof and Coffman Cove were planned to show the terminal was being used for its intended purpose and to avoid possible penalties or having to pay back federal funds used to... Full story
In the works for awhile, Rainforest Islands Ferry Service has been delayed yet again. The ferry was set to sail June 14, then postponed to June 28. “We were so close” to that start, spokeswoman Heather Hedges said, but work at the shipyard was delayed. The 65-foot landing craft made its way up to Ketchikan from Anacortes, Wash. on Monday and sea trials have just begun with another U.S. Coast Guard inspection scheduled. The first delay was due to a wait on USCG certification. “As long as everything goes smoothly,” Hedges said, service is expe... Full story
Five of Alaska Marine Highway System’s 11 ferries will be laid up at some point next year under a draft vessel deployment plan released on June 24. The Taku will be held in layup status the whole year, while the Kennicott will be from October until entering overhaul in early January. The Fairweather and Chenega will enter federal projects in October and mid-September, respectively, and will both be laid up starting in May 2016. The Malaspina is also scheduled to enter layup status in late May of next year. Under the draft schedule, from O...
The new Rainforest Islands Ferry Service, providing travel between Petersburg, Wrangell and Coffman Cove, has been delayed again. Set to begin June 14, service is now expected to start June 28 instead. Heather Hedges, who does advertising and marketing for Rainforest Islands Ferry, said the delay is due to a wait on Coast Guard certification. The ferry, a 65-foot landing craft called the Rainforest Islander, will provide service four days a week year round: Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday....
It’s been a concern since budget talks began: the Alaska Marine Highway System’s summer ferry service will remain as scheduled — with the exception of the MV Taku. That ferry won’t be returning until October as maintenance to other vessels has delayed its annual overhaul, according to Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities. The MV Taku was originally slated to begin sailing again in July. With the Taku out, sailings to and from Prince Rupert, British Columbia, will be cut from four to two trips a week. Those include stops in... Full story
While established Alaska ferries fight for funding, a small startup is about to launch from northern Prince of Wales Island. The North End Ferry Authority based in Coffman Cove has created the Rainforest Islands Ferry, a three stop service that revives a canceled route of the Inter-Island Ferry Authority. Operating four days a week beginning June 14, the Rainforest Islands Ferry will travel from Coffman Cove to Wrangell and Petersburg via the South Mitkof terminal. The ferry authority is overhauling a landing craft, to be named the R...
Despite the proposed statewide budget cuts, our legislators will not close paved highways elsewhere in the state. Likewise, they won’t restrict two-lane highways down to a single lane. But that will be the effect a proposal by a legislative subcommittee that is proposing a 10-percent cut to the Alaska ferry system. Some proposals call for taking ferries out of service, including replacement vessels that go into service when vessels are taken out of service for repairs or annual Coast Guard required overhauls. Southeast communities will not o...
A number of public hearings on Alaska Marine Highway System’s operating budget have been scheduled this week, allowing ferry users the opportunity to give their input to state legislators as they draw up a budget. In a media release, Southeast Conference highlights the ferry system’s importance to the region’s communities, and further warns of a possible $9.5 million cut to AMHS being weighed as the Legislature finds ways to address a $3.5 billion deficit anticipated for the 2016 fiscal year. If that sized cut goes ahead as planned, servi...
