Mukilteo-Clinton ferry on 1-boat service as outage sparks delays

Published 12:00 pm Thursday, December 14, 2023

MUKILTEO — Another ferry malfunction put the Mukilteo-Clinton route back to one-boat service for the Thursday morning commute.

Mechanical issues sidelined the 124-car M/V Issaquah from the 5 a.m. sailing Thursday, leaving the 144-car M/V Tokitae as the sole vessel on the Mukilteo-Clinton route. It was cleared to return to service for the 11:30 a.m. sailing.

Meanwhile, an electronic fare system outage Thursday morning meant crews had to manually process transactions on all ferry routes, resulting in further delays. The system was repaired before noon.

As of Thursday morning, only 14 of 21 boats were operational for Washington State Ferries.

The Mukilteo-Clinton route is the second-busiest route in the system, with around 3.4 million riders annually. The crossing takes about 20 minutes.

Ashley Nash: 425-339-3037; ashley.nash@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @ash_nash00.