Washington State Ferries Builds a Hybrid Electric Future

Steve Nevey did not stumble into maritime. He was raised in it, shaped by it, and by most accounts destined for it. Born in the UK, Nevey grew up in a naval household. His father served aboard HMS Invincible, and after visiting the ship as a two-year-old following its return from the Falklands War, ships became his singular obsession.

While other children talked about sports or pets, Nevey was giving school presentations on aircraft carriers and warships, he recalls.

"Everyone said from that moment, all I would talk about is ships and working on ships and reading about ships," said Nevey. "I was just obsessed."

That fascination matured into a practical career path when he discovered the merchant marine. At 16, he entered a Chevron scholarship program that paired formal maritime education in Southampton with sea service aboard oil tankers. By age 20, he had qualified as a third navigation officer, beginning a seagoing career that would take him across tankers, ferries, private yachts, and cruise ships before eventually leading to one of North America’s most operationally complex ferry systems.

His route to the top job at Washington State Ferries was not conventional, but in retrospect, it was fitting. After rising through the shipboard ranks with Holland America, Nevey transitioned ashore to support a major vessel overhaul involving complex safety system integration. That assignment became a permanent move into maritime management, leading to increasingly senior roles overseeing vessel operations, safety systems, personnel development, and eventually operations leadership for Holland America and Seabourn.

The pandemic years in cruise operations were punishing, with fleets shut down and global logistics strained in ways the industry had never experienced. It was during that period that Washington State Ferries came calling. Nevey joined as operations director four and a half years ago and, two years later, took over leadership of the system.

That background matters because Washington State Ferries is not simply a regional ferry operator. It is a public transportation system, a critical maritime infrastructure asset, and one of the largest ferry networks in the world. The organization operates 21 vehicle ferries across 10 routes and 20 terminals throughout Puget Sound and the Salish Sea, carrying between 19 and 20 million passengers and approximately 10 million vehicles annually. By passenger volume, it is the largest ferry system in the United States. But scale alone is not the story.

Image courtesy WSDOT

For the next four years [until WSF’s newbuild vessels arrive from Eastern Shipbuilding] “we’re going to be in this kind of position where any unexpected breakdown is going to cause a ripple through the fleet.” That vulnerability is compounded by age. "We've got vessels that are older than 65 years old. Keeping those vessels running while we've got this kind of shortage, it confounds the challenge."

- Steve Nevey,
Deputy Secretary, Washington State Ferry (WSF)

The Hybrid Electric Pivot

The real story is that Washington State Ferries is attempting one of the most ambitious fleet transformation programs in North America while simultaneously fighting the daily realities of an aging fleet, vessel shortages, infrastructure constraints, and public-sector funding pressures. "It's a huge logistical challenge to do all of that work while trying to maintain service with an aging fleet and not enough vessels," said Nevey.

At the heart of WSF’s operational challenge is a simple but unforgiving number: 24. The system needs 24 vessels to reliably provide the service levels expected today. Today it has 21.

That shortfall creates a precarious operational balancing act. Depending on seasonal service demands, 17 or 18 vessels are in active operation on any given day. That leaves only a handful undergoing scheduled maintenance, drydock work, or overhaul. If a vessel suffers an unexpected machinery casualty, there is no true relief vessel available to immediately step in.

The result is a system where one breakdown becomes a network-wide operational problem.

“For the next four years,” Nevey said, “we’re going to be in this kind of position where any unexpected breakdown is going to cause a ripple through the fleet.”

That vulnerability is compounded by age. "We've got vessels that are older than 65 years old. Keeping those vessels running while we've got this kind of shortage, it confounds the challenge," said Nevey.

WSF’s fleet averages approximately 36 years old, with some vessels exceeding 65 years in service. Keeping aging ferries operational is not simply a maintenance exercise. In many cases, original equipment manufacturers no longer exist, requiring parts to be sourced through specialty suppliers, fabricated independently, or engineered around unavailable components. This is less about normal lifecycle management and more about industrial preservation.

That reality makes reliability the immediate operational priority, even as the organization looks toward electrification and modernization.

The Electrification Challenge

Washington State Ferries’ decarbonization strategy is expansive in scope and complex in execution. Nevey describes it as a three-part effort:

• Converting existing vessels expected to remain in service beyond 2040,

• Building new hybrid-electric ferries, and

• Installing charging infrastructure throughout the terminal network.

Each pillar is challenging on its own. Together, they represent a system-wide transformation, and the conversion of legacy vessels has proven particularly difficult.

WSF’s first major hybrid-electric conversion, the Wenatchee, was intended as a cornerstone project. Instead, it became a painful but valuable case study in retrofit complexity. "We were just managing it like it was a regular dry dock when it was actually a major, major construction project," said Nevey.

Planned as a 10-month project, the conversion ultimately took 22 months.

The engineering concept itself was straightforward enough: remove two of the vessel’s four diesel engines and replace that machinery footprint with battery banks and supporting infrastructure. But almost as soon as it started, reality intervened.

As-built drawings did not accurately reflect shipboard conditions. Once equipment was removed, piping and cabling were discovered in locations that conflicted with design assumptions. The shipyard needed decisions, but WSF was not organizationally structured to manage the work as the major construction project it had become.

Nevey’s assessment is refreshingly candid. The organization approached the project too much like an aggressive drydock availability and not enough like a major reconstruction program requiring dedicated technical governance, rapid engineering response, and specialized project management.

The lessons learned are substantial, but so are the stakes.

The three ferries originally targeted for conversion account for roughly 25% of total fleet carbon emissions. Electrifying those vessels remains strategically important. But with the fleet already operating below required vessel count, removing additional ferries from service for prolonged conversion periods presents its own operational risk.

For now, WSF has paused additional conversions while reassessing timing and execution strategy.

Betting on Newbuilds

If conversions exposed the complexity of retrofitting old vessels, the newbuild program represents WSF’s clearest path forward.

"When you talk to ABB, Siemens, the engine manufacturers, they're all pivoting to the future is electric, the future isn't diesel," said Nevey.

The organization’s hybrid-electric ferry design, developed with ABB, is not viewed as speculative technology. Hybrid-electric ferry propulsion is already established in European operations, giving WSF confidence that the technical foundation is sound. Execution, however, is everything.

That responsibility now rests with Eastern Shipbuilding Group, which secured the contract for WSF’s newbuild ferry program in late 2025.

The award generated debate, particularly given Washington’s shipbuilding history, but Nevey describes the procurement outcome as largely dictated by legislative structure rather than discretionary preference. State rules were revised to permit out-of-state construction while preserving a 13% competitive advantage for in-state yards. Washington bids exceeded that threshold, leaving little room for interpretation.

The more important issue now is process discipline.

Nevey recently visited Eastern Shipbuilding with senior WSF leadership as part of the detailed design review process. That stage is critical because WSF’s conceptual design is now being translated into Eastern’s production design package, effectively shifting the design from engineering intent to buildable reality.

One of the major lessons from Wenatchee was the danger of ambiguity between design documents and field execution. The goal this time is to eliminate uncertainty before steel cutting begins.

If piping routes, valve selections, installation details, or other production concerns arise, Nevey insists they need to be resolved in design review, not during construction.

"My priority is getting a boat in 2030 on time, on budget, and I think we're on the path to do that at the moment," said Nevey.

Infrastructure: The Quiet Giant

While the vessel story gets the headlines, shore infrastructure is an equally important if not more difficult problem to solve.

Hybrid-electric ferries deliver their full value only when charging infrastructure exists at terminals, allowing vessels to recharge between sailings and operate primarily on battery power rather than using diesel engines to recharge onboard systems.

Building that infrastructure across WSF’s network is a massive logistical challenge.

According to Nevey, each terminal presents unique constraints: Some are located in dense urban settings with complex utility interfaces; others are in smaller communities with limited infrastructure capacity and challenging site conditions. Different counties, different utilities, different regulatory environments, different engineering realities.

This is not one project repeated twenty times. It is twenty different infrastructure projects sharing a common strategic objective. Until that infrastructure exists, WSF’s hybrid vessels remain transitional rather than fully electric.

Still, Nevey sees operational benefits extending well beyond emissions reduction. Battery-dominant operations mean fewer running hours on diesel engines, reduced wear, lower maintenance burdens, and fewer moving parts requiring replacement. For operators, that may ultimately be the more compelling argument.

Building Mariners, Not Just Hiring Them

Like many companies in the maritime sector, WSF was hit hard by workforce disruption during the pandemic, particularly as accelerated retirements exposed long-standing demographic vulnerabilities.

Nevey’s approach was to challenge conventional thinking. The issue, he concluded, was not attracting entry-level workers. WSF already received strong applicant volume. The real problem was advancement.

"The problem is not how do we attract people; it's once we've got the people here, how do we help them advance?," he said.

Historically, moving from entry-level roles into licensed positions required significant personal sacrifice, including unpaid time away from work and self-funded credentialing. That model excluded many otherwise capable candidates, so WSF changed it.

Today, the organization pays employees to pursue advancement training, covering educational pathways while maintaining wages. The effect has been significant. Captain positions once routinely filled through overtime coverage now have permanent occupants, and retirement risk indicators are improving. Perhaps more notably, WSF is sourcing talent from well outside traditional maritime channels, with many recruits arrive from retail, service industries, and other unrelated professions. So instead of competing for an already constrained labor pool, WSF is creating its own pipeline.

The Path Ahead

Ten to 15 years from now, Nevey sees a very different Washington State Ferries. A largely hybrid-electric fleet. Standardized sister vessels with greater deployment flexibility. Terminal charging infrastructure enabling true battery-dominant operation. Reduced maintenance burdens and improved reliability. A stronger internal mariner pipeline supporting leadership continuity. It is a compelling vision, but between now and then lies the hard part.

Washington State Ferries is not solving one problem. It is navigating multiple interconnected transitions at once: fleet renewal, decarbonization, workforce regeneration, infrastructure modernization, and the realities of operating as a public agency where maritime priorities compete with every other budget demand in state government.

Private operators can plan around long-term capital requirements with relative autonomy, but WSF as a public entity cannot, which makes execution discipline even more important.

For Steve Nevey, the next four years are about maintaining service, preserving morale, and keeping the system operational until the first wave of renewal arrives. There is little slack left in the system, and that’s what makes Washington State Ferries one of the most closely watched maritime transformation stories in North America today.