HCR 38: Urging the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities to use the Alaska marine highway system fast ferries efficiently by deploying the fast ferries in northern Lynn Canal and Prince William Sound beginning in the summer of 2006, and to provide data regularly to the affected communities to enable the communities to evaluate the service effectively.
00 HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 38 01 Urging the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities to use the Alaska marine 02 highway system fast ferries efficiently by deploying the fast ferries in northern Lynn 03 Canal and Prince William Sound beginning in the summer of 2006, and to provide data 04 regularly to the affected communities to enable the communities to evaluate the service 05 effectively. 06 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA: 07 WHEREAS the Southeast Alaska region is coastal in nature, and the economies have 08 evolved around and depend on reliable and predictable patterns of marine transportation; and 09 WHEREAS state ferries deliver people, food, health care, supplies, and equipment to 10 coastal communities throughout the state, with economic effects far beyond the area in which 11 they operate; and 12 WHEREAS failure to establish and publish baseline schedules at least two years in 13 advance for all Alaska marine highway system routes reduces ridership and complicates 14 connections within the system and with other modes of transportation; and 15 WHEREAS inconsistent planning and sudden changes to schedules have caused
01 negative economic effects on communities and their businesses; and 02 WHEREAS fast vehicle ferries were designed and deployed to upgrade the aging 03 Alaska marine highway system fleet and to supplement the level of service by providing fast, 04 efficient, and reliable transportation on point-to-point service runs to better meet local 05 demand; and 06 WHEREAS local communities best understand their transportation needs and have a 07 vested interest in developing local control over long-range strategies; 08 BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the Department of 09 Transportation and Public Facilities to 10 (1) commit, on a year-round basis, a fast vehicle ferry to northern Lynn Canal 11 servicing Juneau, Haines, Skagway, and Sitka; 12 (2) return, on a year-round basis, a fast vehicle ferry to Prince William Sound 13 servicing Cordova, Valdez, and Whittier; 14 (3) effective October 2006, develop a schedule for these vessels that remains 15 unchanged for two years, to determine the true demand and economic feasibility of the fast 16 ferries in those respective regions; and 17 (4) provide mayors of the affected communities with relevant data on a 18 quarterly basis to assist the communities with evaluation of the following: 19 (A) optimum scheduling and route selection; 20 (B) revenue maximization and operating costs; 21 (C) passenger satisfaction; 22 (D) overall profitability and efficiency of moving people and goods; 23 and 24 (E) feasibility of development of local ferry authorities.