The winter ferry schedule has just been updated to include some runs by the Tazlina; it will start serving the Northern Panhandle on January 13th. The Tazlina will replace the LeConte while it is out for recertification and maintenance. Designed as a day boat, the Tazlina is limited in its daily run time, and has to resort to running a loop between communities that are usually served in a linear fashion with more frequent stops. These loops are scheduled in pairs, this allows residents of the smaller communities to spend a couple of nights in Juneau and go home.
Some tradeoffs are inevitable with this system. Due to a quirk of the schedule, Haines residents aiming to spend a day in Juneau will have to travel seven hours each way, instead of the usual four. The boat will do two Juneau-Haines-Skagway loops every week and two Juneau-Hoonah-Gustavus loops every other week. Angoon will be getting two direct services to and from Juneau every other week.
Being a smaller boat, the Tazlina will be more susceptible to weather related delays and cancellations. The LeConte will return to service at the end of February.
