The Alaska Marine Highway wants feedback from the communities it serves on the upcoming schedule.
The ferry system plan for fall, winter and spring of 2013 and ’14 is out for review.
Ferry officials try to keep schedules consistent from year to year, says 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 go up into overhaul and lay up periods and those type of things,” Woodrow says. “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 schedule either additional vessels to meet that traffic demands or to accommodate maybe a larger vessel instead of a smaller one that might be serving that community to meet that traffic demand as well.”
Woodrow says written comments on the proposed schedule should be emailed to dot.amhs.comments@alaska.gov and or faxed at 907-586-8365 before April 5th.
An April 9th teleconference is scheduled at 10 a.m. to take comments on the Southeast Alaska schedule, and at 1:30 p.m. on the Southwest and Southcentral schedules. The teleconference number is 1-800-315-6338, conference code 3902#.
Woodrow says changes requested by groups, such as city assemblies, village councils, chambers of commerce, or school districts, will carry more weight than those proposed by individuals.
