Delays in summer ferry schedule raise concerns

A week into the new year, the Alaska Marine Highway System has still not published a ferry schedule for the summer tourist season.

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Among those closely watching the slow progress of the ferry schedule are those in the tourism industry, including the publisher of the Milepost, a guidebook for independent travelers.

"Why they're so late, I don't know," said Andy Hall, general manager of the Milepost. "We're looking at changing the press date of the Milepost to make sure this gets in."

AMHS teleconference

Why: To take public comment on the proposed ferry schedule.

When: 2 p.m. Thursday.

Call: (800) 315-6338; code "3902 #."

For more information: http://www.dot.state.ak.us/.

If they don't get the schedule in time, it might not run in the Milepost for the first time in 40 years, Hall said. The Milepost is owned by Morris Communications Co, which also owns the Juneau Empire.

The news of the late schedule dismayed Lorene Palmer, president and CEO of the Juneau Convention and Visitors Bureau, who wants prospective travelers to have that information available to plan their trips.

"Clearly it's problematic for somebody who wants to come to Alaska," she said. "Alaska is not a spur-of-the-moment trip."

State transportation officials initially denied the schedule was late, but now acknowledge its tardiness, blaming complicated route changes for the delay.

"It is later than we would like to have it out," said Roger Wetherell, spokesman for the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities.

The department is taking public comment on proposed schedules by teleconference Thursday and Friday, and hopes to have the schedule finalized by late this month, Wetherell said.

In past years the schedule was easier to complete because fewer changes were made from year to year, he said. This year, however, the system is proposing major changes, such as eliminating an extra summer run by the ferry Malaspina to Bellingham.

That will free up the Malaspina for other duties, triggering other changes throughout Southeast. Similarly, big changes are proposed for Southwest and Southcentral Alaska runs.

"There were some very difficult challenges we faced in the juggling act," Wetherell said.

Schedules need to be available online, in the Milepost, and printed for travel agents, to fully promote the state, said Palmer of the Juneau Convention and Visitors Bureau.

"It's incumbent on us as a destination to get the information out to people when they need it, and it's especially important for that to get online as soon as possible," she said.

Former ferry system manager Bob Doll, now a Juneau Assembly member, said the visitors the ferries bring are especially valuable to the local economy.

"The cruise industry normally does its best to control the buying activities of its passengers, but the independent traveler is free to spend at small businesses all over Alaska," he said.

The Milepost's Hall said the publication considers the ferry schedules to be an integral part of the publication and will do whatever it can to see they get included. This is the latest its editor, who has been there 25 years, ever remembers the schedule being.

Doll said the ferry system's goal for the summer schedule was in December when he was the manager, and they sometimes actually beat that goal.

• Contact Pat Forgey at 523-2250 or patrick.forgey@juneauempire.com.