Ferry Tales are back!

Perhaps the Skagit County Board of County Commissioners, (BOCC),  would benefit from a course in Business Management 101.  Obviously, they were clueless on doing a cost/benefit analysis when they voted for the Anchor cell phone-based ticketing system.

The new ticketing system is an abomination for all.  It is the primary cause for the ferry leaving later than scheduled, for leaving half-full, and for leaving paid customers waiting for the next run. This exacerbates the wait for cars in line for subsequent runs.

Ferry management claims they are only following edicts from the BOCC, while ferry management is on record as shaping the fare increases and advocating for this expensive E-ticketing system. Pedestrians now are stopped on the ramp, behind a makeshift gate, while vehicles load, creating a new risk as they stand only a curb width from loading cars and trucks. What is the gain in this loading strategy? Is it an attempt to shorten loading time as the only purser with the scanner tries to sort out which car has paid and which driver has to leap from the car, despite the signage not to leave their vehicle unattended, to dash to the ticket office?  Was this the BOCC decision?

Of course, the management calls the Anacortes Police to demonstrate the problem is a recalcitrant Guemes Islander, not the ticketing system.  Each and every insult (unfair fare increase, inept ticketing) that the BOCC/Public Works/Ferry management (they are all complicit) piles upon Guemes Ferry users, emphasizes that the County is throwing good Skagit County tax payer money after bad by enforcing a seriously flawed ticketing app whose major stated benefit was to make County accounting and data gathering easier.  And as we enter the next round of fare increases, last year’s fare increase was presented August 5, 2024, the BOCC will say that Guemes Island costs the County too much money.

By M.J. Andrak