Seattle-Bremerton ferry route down to one-boat service starting Tuesday

Passengers should plan ahead and allow extra travel time as travel delays are likely to occur during peak hours.

SEATTLE – The Seattle-Bremerton ferry service will be discontinued on a single boat service starting Tuesday.

Washington State Ferries (WSF) said the route will operate with the No. 2 M / V Chimacum following a steering system failure on M / V Salish Sunday. WSF said only ferry crossings # 2 operate while the M / V Salish is out of service.

Passengers should plan ahead and allow extra travel time as travel delays are likely to occur during peak hours.

M / V Spokane is filling the Seattle-Bremerton ferry route on Memorial Day due to heavy holiday weekends. WSF said the M / V Spokane will be withdrawn for maintenance starting Tuesday.

WSF said the M / V Salish is expected to be back in service later this week.

From tomorrow June 1st 1 boat service on # Seattle / # Bremerton (with # 2 #Chimacum) due to a failure of the # 1 # Salish steering system on Sunday. Submit #Spokane (recently retired from tomorrow for maintenance) for #MemorialDayWeekend trips today. https://t.co/FTynPqDFtW pic.twitter.com/kvd0yQ71xF

– Washington State Ferries (@wsferries) May 31, 2021

“Thank you for your patience while we work on maintaining our fleet,” WSF said in a travel warning bulletin. “The crews will work as quickly and safely as possible to repair the boat and get the route back into full service.”

Click here to check the Seattle-Bremerton ferry schedule.

Almost every ferry route was already busy with boats or was using smaller ships after an engine fire on the M / V Wenatchee in April caused the WSF to muddle boats.

Twenty-one boats make up the Washington Ferry System, the largest in the United States. But a decade without new ships has left WSF with thin operating margins, especially with a large Jumbo Mark II-class ferry like the Wenatchee that’s likely to be out for months.

Major upgrades to the ferry system are planned over the next 20 years – 13 boats are to be retired and replaced and three additional ships to expand the system.