Still no sign of an Alaska Marine Highway System Return for Prince Rupert

The gates to the AMHS Terminal at Fairview remain closed
with no word yet from Alaska as to whether service will
resume to Prince Rupert

When it comes to the fate of the service of the Alaska Marine Highway System, whether Prince Rupert will return as a departure and arrival location and connection to the North American highway system still remains a bit of a mystery.

Three weeks ago, at the November 25th City Council session, Mayor Lee Brain in response to an inquiry on the topic from Councillor Gurvinder Randhawa noted that he could not speak to the issue until an announcement is made by the State, something which he said would come at some point in the future.

"I have to wait until the Alaska Government is ready to say whatever  they are going to say. So I"m not at liberty to discuss yet. But when that time arises, the community will be notified at that time."

Three weeks later there is still no indication from the State of  Alaska as to their plans for their fleet and as the scheduling shows, there's no ship on the horizon for the next four months at least so far.

The Alaskans announced an end to the service on September 4th, over concerns that dated back to April related to security issues at the Prince Rupert terminal;  those concerns owing to the lack of on duty armed police officers on hand to assist the US Customs and Border personnel.

With exception of a pair of special sailings in October and November, the official end of service came at the end of September.

For more notes of interest on the Alaska Marine Highway see our archive page here.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review.