Alaska state ferry service between Ketchikan and Prince Rupert, British Columbia, resumed on Monday afternoon. The last state ferry voyage to the Canadian port city was in late fall 2019.
The Matanuska made a quick round trip Monday and is scheduled for another voyage on Friday.
“(The) Matanuska made a test sailing to Prince Rupert about a week ago and all went to plan,” state Transportation Department spokesperson Sam Dapcevich wrote in a Friday email.
This summer’s service is limited, with two round trips scheduled the third week of July, two in the third week of August, and one in September.
In each of those weeks, after calling on Prince Rupert, the Matanuska is scheduled to continue on its route to Wrangell and other Southeast ports.
The state has not released the fall/winter schedule yet.
The more than 30-month gap in service to Prince Rupert was due to a new federal requirement for armed U.S. Customs agents and the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown of Canadian waters. Canada lifted its pandemic closure to ship traffic earlier this year, and a revised U.S.-Canada agreement now allows U.S. border agents to be armed.
Prince Rupert is about 90 nautical miles south of Ketchikan, about a six-hour ferry ride. It’s the last stop on Canada’s east-west Highway 16, about 900 road miles northwest of Bellingham, Washington, which is the southern end of the Alaska Marine Highway System. The ferry system operates weekly service year-round from Bellingham to Alaska.
Rupert was popular with drivers as a cheaper alternative than the longer ferry voyage from Bellingham. The fare for a car from Bellingham to Wrangell in August is $1,066, pus $389 for the driver. The rate from Prince Rupert is about $350, plus $112 for the driver.
Rupert was the original southern terminus of the Alaska ferries when the system started up in 1963 until the state extended its route to Puget Sound in 1967.
Prince Rupert officials in 2019 said about 14,000 travelers used the Alaska ferry terminal each year. The state has a long-term lease on the dock and terminal building, which is owned by the Prince Rupert Port Authority.
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