The Alaska Marine Highway System wants feedback on the ferry schedule for fall, winter and spring of 2013 and ’14.
Ferry officials try to keep future schedules consistent from year to year, said spokesman Jeremy Woodrow. They also work with school districts and communities along the routes to accommodate planned events.
“Of course there are changes that have to happen with different vessels when they to overhaul and lay up periods and those type of things,” he said. “So when we meet the schedule with that consistency, it’s looking at what major events are going on throughout the year, and it’s trying to then scheduled either additional vessels to meet that traffic demands or to accommodate maybe a large vessel instead of a smaller one that’s serving that community to meet that traffic demand as well.”
Woodrow says written comments should be emailed or faxed before April 5th.
Then on April 9th a teleconference is scheduled at 10 a.m. to take comments for the Southeast Alaska schedule, and at 1:30 p.m. for Southwest and Southcentral schedules.
Woodrow says changes requested by groups, such as city councils, village councils, chambers of commerce or school districts, will carry more weight than those proposed by individuals.
For more information, go to www.dot.state.ak.us/amhs/
