AMHS plan puts Tusty out six-plus months, Kennicott filling in part-time for only three

The Alaska Marine Highway System released its proposed winter sailing schedule on Friday and are seeking comments.
    Homer Mayor Ken Castner expressed frustration that the comment period was so short, the city council could not officially add it to its Monday night agenda.
      “The winter sailing schedule for the Tustumena is that on October 1st, it will be laid up and then, it will be out of service until April 15th,” Castner said. “So there is no winter sailing schedule for the Western Gulf. There'll be no travel between Homer and Seldovia. There'll be no travel between Homer and Kodiak.  And, obviously all the other ports in the western system will not be served.”
    While the Tustumena will be taken out of service on October 1, the ferry Kennicott will fill in with every-two-week service out of Homer until January. Sam Dapcevich (dapp-s’eh-vich) is the spokesperson in Juneau for the Marine Highway.
      “The summary of the plan shows the Kennicott handling runs out of Homer, it looks like through the winter schedule until January 6th. And at that point it'll be out of service for a bit and, getting an overhaul and then it'll resume on March 18th,” Dapcevich said. “But they designed that as a two week cycle where it would hit those communities and at least provide them some service while the Tustumena is not running.”
    After that, there will be no ferry service out of Homer for three and a half months, until the Tusty returns to service on April 15. Dapcevich says the short lead time on schedule comments are a result of the times we’re in.
     “We have been very busy dealing with the new environment that we're operating under, with this pandemic going on. And we're trying to get that schedule out as quick as we can so that people will be able to make their winter travel plans,” he said. “We understand that it's not the usual way that we do it, but we're not operating under usual circumstances right now.”
    And though the aging ferry Tustumena needs an annual overhaul, it’s being laid up for an extended period again this winter is not just for maintenance.
      “The reason behind not operating Tustumena during that time period is, the biggest reason would be, funding. We have such a lower amount of revenue coming in. Passenger traffic has decreased substantially since the pandemic began,” Dapcevich said. “And we're our focus right now is to provide essential service to the communities. As, you know, as much as we can, given the limitation of the funding available.”
    Comments on the ferry schedule can be made online at Ferry Alaska.