The state’s mainline ferry Columbia is delayed in Ketchikan due to a port main engine failure. Around 70 passengers were traveling northbound when it broke down yesterday.
Alaska Marine Highway System spokesperson Gabe Strong estimates the ferry will be back on track this Sunday. The Columbia is 52 years old and runs routes through Southeast’s Inside Passage. Strong said with how consistently it’s running, incidents like this are to be expected.
“The Columbia… went in in June or something, and since then it’s been just going up and down from Skagway in the north to Bellingham in the south,” Strong said. “That’s a long run, and it’s just continuously doing it over and over and over again.”
Strong said in the meantime, ferry passengers can make travel arrangements with the terminal to fly home and pick up their vehicles whenever the ferry arrives. Many passengers are choosing to stay on board.
The crew is offering free food and even shuttled a handful of passengers to Ketchikan’s Gateway Recreation Center so they could vote in the general election.
The Columbia is one of the oldest vessels in the fleet. Strong said the long-term plan is to replace the old ferries to prevent incidents like this, but each ferry costs hundreds of millions of dollars.
