The state ferry system’s mainline service to Southeast Alaska remains intact under the draft schedule for the fall/winter season of Oct. 1 through April 30, at one sailing a week.

The rest of coastal Alaska is not so fortunate.

The Prince William Sound communities of Cordova and Valdez would be left without any service for five months Oct. 1 through March 5 while the Aurora is in the shop for annual winter maintenance and to replace rusted steel on the 49-year-old ship.

Gulf of Alaska service to Kodiak, Homer and a couple of small communities on Kodiak Island would be eliminated for almost four months — Jan. 15 through May 1 — as the Tustumena heads into the shipyard for its annual winter work.

The lack of year-round service is due to not having enough ships in operating condition to fill the gaps.

After years of planning, designing, redesigning and rebidding, the state just last month announced it had selected a Louisiana shipyard — the only bidder — to construct a replacement for the 62-year-old Tustumena. When launched in a few years, assuming no more delays, the 330-foot-long, $350 million ship will be the first new Alaska ferry in a decade. 

The mainstays of the fleet range from 30- to 60-year-olds. 

The new governor will have a lot of problems to fix when he or she takes over the office from Gov. Mike Dunleavy in December. The state has no fiscal plan whatsoever to pay the cost of public services in future years; state agencies are running short of staff, short of management and short of getting the job done because of extensive vacancies; and more people have left Alaska than have moved here for 13 years in a row.

For Southeast and other coastal regions that depend — or used to depend — on reliable ferry service, the new governor will need to direct the Department of Transportation to find answers before rusted steel, staff shortages and the rising cost of new ships sink the entire operation.

For Southeast, bringing back the shorter run between Ketchikan and Prince Rupert, British Columbia, as an alternative to the much longer and costlier run to Bellingham, Washington, should be a priority for the new governor.

For all the communities on the Alaska Marine Highway System, making good use of hundreds of millions of dollars of one-time federal aid to improve operations should be a priority, rather than the Dunleavy plan that uses the federal money to replace state dollars in the budget.

None of it will be easy. But it’s time to turn the ship around, something that every voter should consider in choosing the next governor.