Washington State Ferries Jumbo Mark II class ferry M/V Wenatchee.
Washington State Ferries (WSF) stories that it carried 17.4 million riders in 2022, a complete ridership enhance of roughly 100,000 – or 0.5% – over 2021. The rise in annual ridership was fueled by a powerful enhance in walk-on passengers as tourism and in-person work rebounded from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ridership was nonetheless under 2019 pre-COVID ranges, with the general 2022 determine rising to roughly 73% of 2019 numbers, with autos at 82% and walk-on clients as much as 49% of pre-pandemic ranges.
After two years of autos outnumbering passengers for the one time in its historical past, WSF returned to carrying extra passengers (8.8 million) than autos (8.6 million) final 12 months. Passengers are each walk-on riders in addition to anybody in a automobile along with the automobile driver.
Walk-on passengers elevated by 500,000 – or 17.8%. Overall ridership development was extra modest because the variety of autos carried dipped a bit, WSF says that that is presumably as a result of new journey patterns are rising whilst pandemic restrictions have lessened.
Since late 2021, WSF has been working to revive service (PDF 794KB) to pre-pandemic ranges on a route-by-route foundation.
“While it is difficult to forecast trends in the still-evolving ‘new normal,’ ridership is expected to steadily increase in the years ahead,” says WSF.
“Following the successful restoration of our Anacortes/San Juan Islands, Seattle/Bainbridge and Mukilteo/Clinton routes in 2022, we kicked off the new year by moving our Edmonds/Kingston run to a trial of two-boat pre-pandemic service levels,” stated Patty Rubstello, head of WSF. “We plan to restore our Fauntleroy/Vashon/Southworth route early this year, but the timing of full restoration on our Seattle/Bremerton and Port Townsend/Coupeville runs remains dependent on the number of captains and mates who complete training in spring 2023.”
HIGHLIGHTS
The biggest year-to-year enhance got here on the Seattle/Bainbridge Island route, the place complete ridership – autos and passengers mixed – was up 19%. The run was the system’s busiest in 2022 with 4.4 million riders, adopted by Mukilteo/Clinton with 3.4 million and Edmonds/Kingston with 3.1 million. System highlights embrace:
- Seattle/Bainbridge Island: System-high year-to-year leap in autos of 13%, walk-ons surged a system excessive of 31%.
- Mukilteo/Clinton: Total riders down 3%; autos decreased 4% (stays busiest route for drivers), walk-ons grew 19%.
- Edmonds/Kingston: Total riders dropped 12%; autos declined 16%, walk-ons climbed 11%.
- Fauntleroy/Vashon/Southworth: Total riders down 2% from 2021; autos decreased 3%, walk-ons jumped 15%.
- Anacortes/San Juan Islands: Total riders dropped 2%; autos declined 1%, walk-ons remained practically flat.
- Seattle/Bremerton: Total riders down 7%; autos decreased 12%, walk-ons grew 4%.
- Point Defiance/Tahlequah: Year-to-year complete riders up 3%; autos elevated 3%, walk-ons surged 16%.
- Port Townsend/Coupeville: Total riders rose 2%; autos grew 2%, walk-ons jumped 7%.
- Anacortes/Friday Harbor/Sidney, British Columbia: The worldwide route didn’t resume service in 2022 due continued crewing and vessel availability challenges.
