Issues with the operation of the Alaska Marine Highway System and its aging fleet are so severe that marketing efforts to potential visitors outside of Alaska have been intentionally curtailed, Marine Director Craig Tonega said Monday. said at an online public meeting.
“For the sake of credibility for our fleet, we consciously pulled advertising in the Lower 48 because now… That's because it just disappoints people.” Next 20 years. “When you plan a vacation, it’s just part of the trip and there’s something on the backend and then something goes wrong and it’s delayed, but we have to deal with those changes and let the public know. The hard part for management is having to let them know the problem. So we retreated until the fleet was upgraded and everyone could rely on it for planning purposes. ”
The comment was among those from Mr Torunga who acknowledged that AMHS continues to struggle with repairs, labor shortages and other issues. Open house participants, including some state legislators and public officials from communities along the ferry route, also confronted him with specific, recent examples of people who have been adversely affected.
“I was in Kodiak for about 30 hours this weekend and I got about six calls because people were trying to make reservations, and guess what, the reservation line was broken,” said Rep. Louise Stutes, R-Kodiak. “There is,” he said. “When are you going to do something so the average Joe can call and make an appointment?”
Additionally, she said, the website is “not a user-friendly site…Your site is so un-user-friendly that I end up going to the ferry office all the time.”
Mr Trunga said he was not aware that the reservation system was down over the weekend, but that authorities were aware of problems with the reservation system due to feedback from customers and “definitely needs to be improved”. Stated.
Comments from Rep. Rebecca Himschut, a Sitka independent, praised the ferry system's ability to serve as a vital transportation and tourist draw years ago, and with current limited operations. There were mixed concerns about prioritizing the needs of local residents.
“There were Forest Service staff on board at the time, and they acted as naturalists and helped people interpret what they were seeing on the ferry,” she said. “And the beauty of those days is that all the ships were operational and all the ships were staffed. So it was great to incorporate an educational element and a tourist element and reach out, and the system at the time was much healthier.”
But given the current situation, Himshut added, “I just want to speak for the people who live here in Southeast Alaska and are trying to get health care and things like that.” “So from my perspective as a representative of 18,000 constituents and coastal communities, it's very important to me that we take care of those people first with the so-to-speak crippled system that we have.”
While providing an update on the current situation in his opening remarks, Trunga said current fleet maintenance on several vessels is behind schedule.
“It's been a long winter for us in the shipyards. We've been in the shipyards too long, but that's what you get in an older fleet,” he said.
Repairs to the Columbia have been ongoing since the beginning of the year and are expected to last until at least July, Trunga said.
“Again, it's related to steel waste,” he said, referring to problems with other ships built decades ago. “Especially the fire hydrants and their hundreds of feet of piping, there are a lot of obstructions through the bulkheads and they need to be replaced. But it's his 50-year-old pipe and it's constantly exposed to seawater. Masu.”
The Kennicott, which plies the route between Alaska and Bellingham, Wash., is scheduled for major maintenance in Puget Sound next January, including replacing both generators, Trunga said. Ta.
“It's going to be a fairly long project, nine to 10 months,” he said. “We have not yet received a complete schedule from the Garden, but it is a preliminary estimate.”
Work on the LeConte is several months behind schedule, and ferry officials are working with the U.S. Coast Guard to complete only the repairs necessary to meet safety requirements, Trunga said.
“We need to come back in the fall and complete repairs to the vehicle deck,” he said.
Mr Trunga said similar work was being carried out on the Tustumena so that it could resume operations in the south-central and south-west coasts from May 9.
“Not everything is done at the shipyard, but we have everything the Coast Guard needs for the safety of our vessels,” he said. “Thankfully, some have allowed us to postpone until next year.”
In the “good news” part of his remarks, Tounga said about 80 percent of the functional design work for the new vessel to replace the Tustumena is complete, and funding for it was recently secured in the Alaska Statewide Transportation Improvement Plan. . Major upcoming projects include low-emission/no-emission hybrid ferries for south-east communities and terminal upgrades at several ports, including Pelican, Angoon and Kake.
An anonymous participant posed the question, “Has there ever been a cost-benefit analysis of performing such major repairs on an old ship?” I think it would be more economical to put a new ship into service. ”
Tolunga replied: “There's no room for debate.”
“New vessels have a deadline,” he says. “So when the services we are providing are at their bare minimum, unfortunately we are in a position where we have to continue to use what we have until it is replaced.”
Trunga said efforts are also being made to address employee recruitment and retention issues, including outreach to schools.
“We have to focus on getting into high school and start introducing maritime industry as a profession,” he said. “And we will do everything in our power to provide them with the training and pre-work they need to start working in the maritime industry.”
