Guemes Island Ferry Electronic Ticketing Update

The Skagit County Ferry Division has been working through the transition to electronic ticketing for the Guemes Island ferry. It is highly recommended to our riders to purchase ferry tickets on a mobile device prior to boarding as tickets will not be sold in the vehicle loading line. Riders wishing to purchase tickets in person must park at the terminal and come into the ferry ticket office to complete the transaction. If customers need to purchase tickets at the terminal, we ask that you arrive at the terminal as early as possible prior to boarding to ensure sufficient time to make your purchase before returning to the loading line. We understand this transition has been difficult and frustrating at the ferry terminal, but we ask for your patience as our customers become accustomed to purchasing tickets online prior to departure.

Skagit County is committed to providing a better user experience for online and mobile ticket purchases and ensuring the ferry remains on time for scheduled departures. We recognize there are valid concerns with the usability of the mobile app for purchasing tickets and we are working on solutions internally to improve the mobile features as soon as possible. While we work through our options with the software, we will temporarily increase our staff at the ferry terminal to accommodate the in-person ticket purchases and requests for help to purchase online tickets. An additional staff member will be able to help process more purchases in the ticket office and reduce delays in boarding the ferry.

“We acknowledge that some of our passengers have found this transition to be distressing; however, I implore the community to be respectful and polite with our staff,” said Commissioner Wesen. “Our ferry team is incredibly hard-working and dedicated to serving the Guemes Island community. Ultimately, the policies being enforced within the ferry division are decisions made by the County Commissioners and our staff do not deserve to be the subject of verbal abuse while they are simply doing their job. We appreciate the patience of our passengers during this time while we work to reduce delays at the terminal.”

We currently have many passengers arriving for a scheduled departure and parking their vehicle in the queuing lane, but they do not have a ticket purchased for the ride. Pursers have been trying to help these customers purchase tickets on the customer’s mobile devices while in line, but this slows down the boarding process, leading to delays in loading the vessel. The loading delays have caused many passengers to miss scheduled sailings because staff must stop loading the vessel two minutes prior to departure for the ferry to stay on schedule. The ferry has had multiple trips now partially loaded with cars waiting in line because of this policy, which has understandably been very upsetting for our riders. 

We continue to remind customers to purchase ferry tickets prior to arrival at the terminal to ensure passengers can board the ferry as quickly as possible and reduce the number of partially loaded sailings. Vehicle and passenger tickets are available on our mobile app and website for purchase. If you have any questions, please reach out to the ferry office at 360-293-6433 or ferrycomments@co.skagit.wa.us