Frank Murkowski recently wrote an opinion piece published in the Skagway News. While I disagree with Murkowski (both of them) on lots of issues, I whole-heartedly agree with his opinion and ideas on the marine highway system. I adore the marine highway and hate every report of how it’s been deteriorating and under-funded.
Murkowski laid out how the funding from the inappropriately named “Inflation Reduction Act” could be utilized to pay for or supplement AMHS expenses. He pointed out the decreased ridership might make it seem (to an outsider) less needed. “With fewer vessels, ridership which had been averaging over 250,000 in 2019 dropped to 135,000 in 2020 and 38,000 in the year 2021.” But the last couple of years cannot be used as justification for any funding loss to any business. The years 2021 and 2022 are two aberrations that will, hopefully, never be repeated.
I sincerely hope the state of Alaska takes Murkowski’s advice and applies for every penny they can get from that appropriations bill. Maybe invite @secretarypete to come see and partake of the ferry system.
Thank you,
Lynn Gutterman
As Lynn indicates in the above letter, the AMHS ridership counts are totally not valid due to COVID. I used the ferry on a limited basis 3 times during the summer of 2022- that was how I found out it started in Bellingham!
Now I am a current user of the AMHS from May 5th, 2023 in Bellingham, to Sitka, Haines, Skagway, Juneau, and Ketchikan and then back to Bellingham on July 12th, 2023.
I am from New Jersey and found the AMHS to be a most wonderful way to travel- however my planned trip was cut short because of the loss of service from Juneau to Yakutat to Whittier. I had wanted to spend 6 weeks on the Kenai Peninsula since I had spent a lot to ship my car to Bellingham and paid over $4300 for my trips throughout the Inside Passage. I am still having a wonderful time but I think more effort must go into financing this service AND increasing the awareness of its existence in the lower 48. Think of how much money AMHS could make if cruise ship passengers found out they could take their own cars on the ferry from Bellingham and then stay in each port city for at least a week or two!! (like I’m doing- 2 weeks in 5 towns!)