Channel 6 CHEK NEWS: Washington man suing WSF to restore Sidney, B.C. route

On February 23, a ferry activist named Duncan Chalmers filed a lawsuit in King County Superior Court against The Washington State Ferries division of WSDOT.

The lawsuit seeks a court order directing WSF to restore WSF’s only international route, which connects Anacortes to Sidney, B.C., via the San Juan Islands.

Speaking on behalf of an organization named Restore Our Ferries, Channel 6 CHEK News in Victoria reported, “Chalmers says Washington State Ferries does not have the authority to end a route – and that only the State legislature can – and that an indefinite suspension essentially amounts to cancelling a route.”

In its own reporting, The Peninsula Daily News is reporting Chalmers said, “‘International exchange is especially necessary during this time of growing nationalistic conflict across the border.'”

WSF leadership has maintained for years that it intends to restore the Sidney route in 2030. In a February meeting between WSF leadership and the San Juan County Ferry Advisory Committee, it was stated that WSF is currently “preliminary work is starting on getting the vessel Chelan re-certified for ‘Safety of Life at Sea’ (SOLAS),” a status which is required for international ferry service between Washington and Vancouver Island.

Steamboat ferry service between Anacortes and Sidney began in 1922, and for a time connected Sidney to Bellingham instead of Anacortes. WSF took control of the route in 1951. WSF’s seasonal Sidney route survived proposed funding cuts in 1977, 1997, 2002, and 2009, according to Wikipedia. The Sidney route was suspended in March 2020; the pandemic was cited as the reason. But when the pandemic was receding, the route’s suspension was not lifted in 2021, due to a shortage of staffing and vessels. Now that staffing levels are returning to normal, the continuing shortage of vessels is now identified as the main reason the suspension persists.