A couple of weeks ago, Prince Rupert Mayor Herb Pond and several city staffers made an appearance in Ketchikan, Alaska for the annual Southeast Alaska Conference.
Pond spent his time there advocating for the return of the Ferry that travelled between Alaska and Prince Rupert and when he spoke to us afterwards, he explained some of the history of that particular Ferry and how far back it went;
“For nearly 50 years, it made one of it’s stops in Prince Rupert. We actually joined Southeast Conference as an originating member and it was built around the BC and Alaska Ferry Systems coming together to expand their services to Prince Rupert. It’s something that’s been in place for half a century.”
The Ferry was taken out of commission back in 2019 and Pond also detailed some of the reasons why he and his staff were advocating so hard for it to be re-instated;
“First of all, Alaska wants it, the alternative for the people of the southeast is to either go north and get on the highway system, which is a heck of a long drive, or they take the ferry all the way down to Bellingham, which is time consuming and costly. Coming to Rupert works well for them, Ketchikan is our sister City. Our kids used to play basketball back and forth. There’s commerce reasons why we need to go back and forth. and there’s tourism opportunities like crazy.”
While the Ferry still seems to be a ways away from actually coming back and the decision is not in the hands of the City of Prince Rupert, Pond did confirm that he believes the Ferry’s return is closer to becoming a reality than it was before.