Governor Bob Ferguson wants to spend $1 billion to purchase three new state ferries and an additional $150 million to keep the oldest boats in Washington State Ferries’ fleet operational as long as possible before those new vessels arrive.
If the proposal receives approval from legislators, the state would have six hybrid-electric boats in the pipeline, nearly halfway to its goal of replacing 13 aging, diesel-powered boats before 2040.
“This system has lacked sufficient investment in the last decades. We’ve under-invested in new vessels. That can only go on so long,” Ferguson said in an interview. “As long as I’m governor, investments in ferries will continue to be a high priority.”
Ferguson’s plan, part of his supplemental budget proposal being released Friday, comes at a precarious time for the state ferry system and as state finances face constraints. The ferry fleet operates with just 21 vessels carrying hundreds of millions of dollars in deferred maintenance.
After signing a two-year operating budget that addressed a gap of around $16 billion over four years, Ferguson this month warned legislators not to pursue any increases in sales or property taxes to deal with another multibillion-dollar shortfall during the 2026 legislative session beginning January 12.
Ferguson said the state’s transportation budget is in sound fiscal health, and that funding for new boats and preservation would come from the state’s borrowing capacity. His budget assumes money from selling bonds would go into a newly created Preserve Washington Account, with these investments paid out of that account.
Details on who would build the boats, or when they’re expected to enter service, remain unclear. Besides lawmakers, the state Office of Financial Management will determine whether the state must open a new bidding process or if it can amend the existing contract with Florida-based Eastern Shipbuilding Group, the company Ferguson selected in July to construct the state’s new generation of electric ferries.
The new ferry funding, however, wouldn’t go toward the three boats in Eastern’s contract, which are paid for with funds collected from the state’s Climate Commitment Act, which generates revenue from polluters, and from the 2023 Move Ahead Washington transportation budget.
WSF Chief Steve Nevey, who was given a more prominent role in Ferguson’s Cabinet than previously, said the state was running at full domestic service, but barely. With 18 boats in service, the agency doesn’t have enough vessels yet to sail to Sidney, British Columbia, and has just a three-boat cushion for maintenance both planned and unplanned.
This month, for example, the 58-year-old Kaleetan suffered “catastrophic engine failure,” Nevey said. The 144-car vessel will be out for all of December before returning to the San Juan Islands run.
The additional preservation money, dedicated to work over the next six years, is meant to avoid those kinds of breakdowns. It adds to the $282 million already allocated toward vessel maintenance, but focuses on the fleet’s oldest boats: the Tillikum, built in 1959, and the Kaleetan and Yakima, both dating to 1967.
As has been the case for years, the ultimate goal remains to completely electrify and modernize the fleet by 2040, a cornerstone of former Governor Jay Inslee’s environmental legacy. Ferguson said he’s “staying the course” with electrification, a $6.2 billion endeavor that includes retrofitting six diesel ferries to hybrid electric, building 16 new hybrid-electric vessels, and adding charging stations to 16 terminals.
The work began with the electrification of the Wenatchee by Vigor, which was expected to take about a year and cost $50 million. Instead, the state paid Vigor $86 million and the project took nearly two years.
The delayed and costly conversion led Ferguson to put his first stamp on the ferry system. In March, Ferguson said he was shelving the project to convert boats to electric power until sometime after the 2026 FIFA World Cup comes to the region, a move he predicted would return the fleet to pre-pandemic service levels of 18 boats over the summer, which it did.
The contract with Vigor to convert one to two more boats has been put on hold, but not cancelled.
Since returning to the fleet, the Wenatchee has been out of service a handful of times, once for nearly a month and most recently on Tuesday after the boat’s crew discovered an issue with a power pack on one of its engines. The pack was replaced, and the vessel ended up missing just three round trips before returning to service for the 10:25 a.m. sailing from Bainbridge to Seattle.
Regardless, having 18 boats sailing contributed to the system providing a projected 20 million rides this year, the first time it’s reached that number since 2019.
In July, Ferguson chose Eastern Shipbuilding Group of Panama City, Florida, to construct the three new electric ferries over Nichols Brothers Boat Builders in Freeland on Whidbey Island, opting for a lower-cost bid over supporting Washington’s local shipbuilding industry.
Eastern’s bid estimated the first boat would cost $251.3 million, with a total bid for three boats at $714.5 million.
Though any decision remains distant, Nevey said that amending Eastern’s contract to include three additional boats “may drive down the price” by allowing the company to hire more long-term workers and “buy all the steel at today’s prices.”
