Summer ferry schedule starts with no service first 2 weeks of May

The state ferry schedule is available for bookings for the summer season, May 1 through Sept. 30, though it opens with no stops in Wrangell until May 12 due to crew changeover between vessels.

The overall schedule is the same as recent years: A weekly northbound stop in town Sunday afternoon or early evening, and a southbound port call every Wednesday morning.

The Alaska Marine Highway System will operate the Columbia, the largest ship in the fleet, on the weekly run between Bellingham, Washington, and through Southeast Alaska up into Lynn Canal.

The Kennicott is serving that route during the winter season. The state will pull the Kennicott out of service for the summer due to a crew shortage.

The early-May gap in service on the ferry system’s mainline route is to allow time to move crew from the Kennicott to staff up the idle Columbia, Sam Dapcevich, Alaska Department of Transportation spokesman, said Friday, Jan. 19.

The Columbia has not operated since late November, when it was pulled from service for annual maintenance.

The Kennicott will stop working on May 1 and the Columbia is scheduled to leave Ketchikan after the crew changeover on May 8 for Bellingham, returning northbound and resuming service to Wrangell as it passes through on its way to Petersburg.

The schedule leaves Wrangell without ferry service between the southbound Kennicott on April 29 and the northbound Columbia on May 12.

The ferry system website shows summer fares similar to winter rates. For example, an adult driver with a vehicle will cost $1,374 for travel between Bellingham and Wrangell this summer.

With the ferry system unable to put the Kennicott to work this summer, the schedule does not include any service to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, a popular connection point to the North American highway system. Alaska ferries called on Rupert for decades until crew shortages, budget cuts and new U.S. and Canadian border rules brought an end to the stops almost five years ago.

State officials talk about wanting to resume service to Prince Rupert and have resolved the border security and port issues but it remains elusive, particularly with the tie-up of the Kennicott, the only operational vessel in the fleet sanctioned to call on the foreign port.

The most heavily traveled route in the system — between Juneau, Haines and Skagway — will see a ferry just about every day this summer.