The winter ferry schedule released two months ago still contains a month-long gap that could spell inconvenience and added expenses for residents needing medical attention or wanting to visit family or go on vacation in January and February.
But state officials still plan to fill the gap with the 300-passenger Tazlina ferry, Alaska Department of Transportation spokesperson Sam Dapcevich said this week.
“We intend to run Tazlina on a limited schedule during the service gap while LeConte is in overhaul. A press release with details will go out soon,” Dapcevich said in an email to the CVN Wednesday morning.
Dapcevich told the CVN in September, when the winter ferry schedule was released with the gap, that “it’s very likely” Tazlina sailings would be added for January and February, if DOT could hire enough crew. “We’re evaluating crew levels. We do expect to run it,” he said at the time, adding the state would “have a better idea” by mid-October.
If the Tazlina can be crewed, it would call on Haines Fridays and Sundays in January and February, according to a draft operating plan. But sailings still haven’t been added. Currently there is only one ferry to Haines in all of January, no service between Jan. 3 and Feb. 4 and one ferry a week in February.
Haines resident Cecily Stern said the current lack of service scheduled for February, when her family is planning vacation, will result in a layover of more than a week in Juneau.
“That’s just incredibly inconvenient for us,” she said. “We have been talking about what we’re going to do. We just don’t know. It’s difficult to plan any kind of travel back home in February.”
Stern said the situation is especially worrisome to senior residents who are more likely to need medical attention. Southeast Alaska has the highest percentage of seniors per capita of any region in Alaska, according to the state’s most recent Alaska Commission on Aging Senior Snapshot.
The Tazlina—which is just a few years old—has been tied up in Juneau to save money. If it didn’t run, Dapcevich said in September, the state would still try to offer supplemental service to Haines and Skagway with Goldbelt or Allen Marine.
“When ferries cancel or just plain outright don’t provide service, you leave residents to the mercy of regional airlines with little to no competition and ever increasing rates,” resident Nathan Piper wrote in a public comment about the state’s draft ferry schedule in August. “It makes me start thinking about paddling to where I need to go, maybe the gale force winds will get me there a little bit faster.”
The ferry schedule includes more frequent service to the upper Lynn Canal through December and in March and April.