BATON ROUGE, La. – The Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) announced today that the White Castle ferry has returned to service.

The White Castle ferry closed Dec. 18 because of a shortage of licensed marine engineers needed to operate the ferry. DOTD is still trying to fill vacant positions for all ferries, said Vince Latino, DOTD engineer for fleet and movable bridge maintenance.

“Currently, all ferry employees are working overtime to keep the ferries up and running,” said Latino. “If we lose another employee or someone gets sick, we may have to close a ferry down again. However, right now we understand the need and are working to keep all ferries open.”

The 17-car White Castle ferry will operate its regular hours from 4:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Because the White Castle ferry is running again, the Plaquemine ferry will return to regular hours, from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. The Plaquemine ferry had been running and hour early to help provide passage for drivers that would normally use the White Castle ferry but could not while it was closed.

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www.dotd.la.gov