Re: Bad summer for the White Pass?

Howdy:

Last week, Canada announced that it was closing all West Coast Ports to cruise ships effective until 1 July 2020. Where the majority of cruise ships that make the annual Alaska runs from Vancouver, BC or stop in Vancouver, BC; this effectively shuts the Alaska cruises until then.

There are a few small ship operators that make the Inland Passage run from Seattle, as well but they tend not to go as far north as Skagway. So far, Canada has not closed it's borders to US Citizens, so overland up the ALCAN Highway is still possible.

And unfortunately, due to many years of insufficient State funding for maintaining our State Ferries, we are in an additional crunch. Currently, we do not have enough operating State Ferries to maintain much of any service State wide. With a number of State Ferries not operating and in need of much needed maintenance; Ferries not running due to scheduled annual maintenance; the Alaska State Ferry System will be hard pressed to serve the residents of the Alaska Southeast Panhandle, Prince William Sound and the Alaska Southwest / Aleutian Islands this summer as well. This means, the alternative method of traveling from Washington State to Alaska (Skagway) is likely problematic as well.

Dougwood1954
Anchorage, Alaska