After a 30-month absence due to a new federal requirement for armed customs agents and the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown of Canadian waters, the Alaska Marine Highway System is scheduled to resume limited service this summer to Prince Rupert, British Columbia.
The Matanuska is scheduled for two stops each month in June, July and August, and one visit in September before the ferry system switches over to its more limited fall/winter schedule, which is still being developed.
The first sailing from Ketchikan to Prince Rupert is set for June 20.
“We intend to keep it open for travelers in the years to come,” Alaska Transportation Commissioner Ryan Anderson said in a prepared statement March 7.
Reservations for travel to and from Prince Rupert for June through September are available online at the marine highway website, with the department continuing to work toward adding service in May.
Last fall, the department said it was targeting a return to Prince Rupert in May, and had left openings in its summer schedule for the Matanuska to make two runs to the British Columbia port the third week of each summer month. It’s about a 17-hour round trip, accounting for port time in Rupert.
Prince Rupert is about 90 nautical miles south of Ketchikan, about a six-hour ferry ride. It is the last stop on Canada’s east-west Highway 16, about 900 road miles northwest of Bellingham, Washington, which is the southern end of the Alaska Marine Highway System. The ferry system operates weekly service year-round from Bellingham to Alaska.
Rupert was the original southern terminus of the Alaska ferries when the system started up in 1963 until the state extended its route to Puget Sound in 1967. Years ago, when the state was operating more vessels, ferries would call at the Canadian port once or twice a week year-round on their Southeast route.
The state pulled its service from Prince Rupert in October 2019 when U.S. Customs and Border Protection began requiring armed law enforcement personnel during port calls. The U.S. Customs agents that accompanied the ferries from Ketchikan to clear passengers and vehicles in Rupert did not carry guns, and the state was unable to work out a deal to pay for Canadian law enforcement personnel during port calls or allow U.S. agents to carry weapons in Canada.
Then the pandemic in early 2020 shut down Canadian waters to vessel traffic.
Canada has lifted its pandemic closure to ship traffic, and a U.S.-Canada agreement now allows U.S. border agents to be armed.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security several years ago determined that border crossing agents must be armed. The agents will store their guns in a secure location at the Prince Rupert terminal, Sam Dapcevich, Alaska Transportation Department spokesman, said March 9.
The department still has some work to finish before the Alaska ferry sailings resume, he said, including ensuring that security fencing is in place at the terminal and network connections are available for customs agents.
Prince Rupert officials in 2019 said about 14,000 travelers used the Alaska terminal each year. The state has a long-term lease on the dock and terminal building, which is owned by the Prince Rupert Port Authority.
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