Washington State Ferries operate out of the affluent city of Seattle in the USA and serve 20 ports with 21 vessels. 9 of these large ferries, above, aged between 45 and 59 years are older than the just retired CalMac boat, MV Isle of Arran, aged 42.
WSF have a long history of poor service beyond that which CalMac users can imagine, of unreliability, soaring prices, violence on the ramps and flooding car decks and some of the oldest vessels in the developed world, above.
More recently, last summer, from Fox 13 Seattle:
Summer ferry reservations are highly sought after, almost like concert tickets. If Taylor Swift and Washington State Ferries have one thing in common, it’s their ability to overwhelm a ticketing waiting room, which is exactly what happened last year.
In 2025, heavy demand overwhelmed the virtual waiting room as travelers logged on to book trips. The outage prompted the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) to announce plans for a new ticketing and reservation system, though it is not expected until 2027.
Two days ago:
At 10:30 a.m., just a half hour after the virtual waiting room opened, Washington State Ferries (WSF) sent an alert that said, “If you experienced issues previously, please try again.”
Prior to the announcement, a number of people took to social media to report the site crashing around 10 a.m. Several minutes later, Washington State Ferries sent an alert saying the reservation system was “running slower than normal due to extremely high demand.”
The urgent need to upgrade the online booking system is not going well and even the 2027 target may not be met:
From from the Journal of the San Juan Islands, four days ago
Washington State Ferries has terminated its contract with Anchor Operating System, the vendor hired in January 2025 to modernize the agency’s ticketing and reservations platform — a costly and contentious end to a project already more than a year behind schedule, and one that raises serious questions about transparency, user testing and how a multimillion-dollar public technology project went so wrong so quietly.
Imagine the media froth were this in Scotland.
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If you are looking for examples of badly run ferry systems, there are many the world over. This does not alter the situation in Scotland, where we have a very badly managed fleet, waste, inefficiency and hugely expensive system that is not serving islanders nor taxpayers well.
I repeat my invitation to have a conversation with the Mull and Iona Ferry Committee, so you can hear first hand about Hebridean ferry services. Feel free to email me (Joe) – joe@islandbakery.scot
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Joe
I won’t waste your time and mine with a ‘conversation’ where I am outnumbered by you and your other members but I will do this.
If you feel you have evidence that I’m wrong, write a piece for Talking-up Scotland demonstrating that. I will not change a word of what you submit. You will decide the headline and any images. There is no word limit. Say just what you want to say and I will publish it as well as haring it with thousands in my social media links.
Send it to talkingupreminders@gmail.com
John
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over on Facebook suggests the most recent meeting with local
Calmac staff was positive.
Does Mr Reade agree?
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And again … please see my reply to the same question on the neighbouring thread.
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