The Alaska Marine Highway will shuffle the schedules of three ferries this winter to avoid dropping service to a handful of Southeast and Prince William Sound towns.
On Wednesday, the Marine Highway released its winter 2016-2017 schedule, which calls for rotating the Aurora, Fairweather and LeConte between northern Southeast and the Sound.
“What that allows the department to do is avoid a service gap in Prince William Sound and avoid that service gap we had last year in the northern panhandle,” said Jeremy Woodrow, a spokesman for the marine highway.
Last winter, Angoon, Pelican and Tenakee went without service for almost a month at the start of the year. The state has been laying up ferries to save money, and winter is the normal time for overhauls and maintenance on much of the fleet. The combination of those two factors left few vessels available in late January and early February.
The same thing is true this year, but the schedule shuffle is intended to cover gaps, Woodrow said.
From Jan. 3 through Feb. 4, only four ferries will be in service across the state. During that time, the Tustumena will serve Southwest Alaska, the Aurora will be in Prince William Sound, the Malaspina will make runs to Washington state, and the LeConte will serve the northern panhandle.
That widespread deployment will leave the ferry system with few options if a breakdown happens.
Restrictions on the operation of the Tustumena will mean an end to the regular January cross-Gulf trips for Legislators and their staffers, Woodrow confirmed.
“The legislative trips will be driving to Haines,” he said.
After winter, budget cuts to the ferry system are expected to cause further restrictions in service.
The ferry Taku will be laid up for all of 2017 and is expected to be sold. The fast ferry Chenega will be laid up Sept. 1, and the fast ferry Fairweather will be laid up starting Jan. 31.
Joining those three ferries in layup will be the mainline ferry Malaspina, which is scheduled to exit service April 19.
“That’s a cost-savings layup,” Woodrow said, but added that “there’s the potential that (layup) could change” if funding is available.
“Taku and Chenega, those are going to be in layup next summer, we can say that for certain,” he said.
Tickets for the winter schedule can now be booked at ferryalaska.com.
• Contact reporter James Brooks at 523-2258 or james.k.brooks@juneauempire.com.
