Freight will be arriving on Island 15 minutes later in the fall, but those 5:30 am ferries may still be serving Martha’s Vineyard next summer if the proposed schedule is approved by the Steamship Authority (SSA) Board of Directors.
Robert Davis, SSA general manager, told The Times, the board approved a modified freight schedule for fall and winter. A 6 am passenger ferry from Woods Hole to Martha’s Vineyard remains on the schedule for commuters who depend on it, he said.
The schedule changes were approved at a board meeting in Hyannis Tuesday.
“Board members understand the need to get vehicles over, but they understand the need to be good neighbors as well,” Mr. Davis said.
The schedule was the topic of a public hearing and petition drive in Falmouth where Woods Hole residents complained of noise from the early morning freight ferries.
Meanwhile, the Steamship Authority is still exploring the possibility of shipping freight out of New Bedford. A consultant filed an initial report indicating that there is interest among the freight companies and the city to keep exploring it, Mr. Davis said.
Craig Johnson of Flagship Management, a Florida-based company, did the study. Mr. Johnson previously offered the service but it was discontinued because it proved cost prohibitive.
“He’s familiar with route and shipping needs,” Mr. Davis said of Mr. Johnson. “He doesn’t work for a private carrier anymore.”
There’s a long way to go before freight service from New Bedford becomes a reality, Mr. Davis said. Chief among them, state pier in New Bedford, one of the possible locations needs $2 million to $5 million in repairs, he said.
The pier is also being taken over from the state Department of Conservation and Recreation by MassDevelopment, an economic development agency for the state.
“There’s a question of how things will be paid for and how to staff positions,” Mr. Davis said. The board’s position is clear that the Steamship Authority “shouldn’t be subsidizing this service,” he said. “If viable, the freight service should stand on its own.”
There was nothing in the initial go-round to dissuade Mr. Johnson from continuing to explore the options, he said.
There was a bit of bad news at Tuesday’s meeting. Mr. Davis reported to the board that the new administrative offices are behind schedule, perhaps as much as six weeks, after faulty construction materials having to do with insulating the new $12.7 million building on Palmer Avenue had to be replaced.
The construction delays there threaten to throw off the schedule for other construction planned by the SSA, Davis said, including the new slips in Woods Hole. Mr. Davis said the ferry service doesn’t want any of the construction projects to interfere with the busy summer season for the SSA.
“If we’re not able to get out of that building until first week in February, that’s five or six weeks,” he said of the Woods Hole terminal and administrative offices.
A temporary building in Woods Hole is ready except for wiring, Mr. Davis said. The Steamship Authority doesn’t expect to start using that building until November, he told The Times.
Finally, the authority continues to experiment with the use of RFID cards for commuters, students, and people who purchase blocks of tickets in batches of 10. The cards are working well, Mr. Davis said.
This month commuters will be able to reload the cards on their home computers, he said.
A side benefit is commuters who lose their tickets can have them replaced, something that couldn’t be done with the old white books filled with tickets, Mr. Davis said.
“One commuter punched a hole in his card to put it on a key chain and it broke the wiring that’s inside,” he said. “We were able to replace it. We’ve had a couple of people who lost them and we’re able to replace those as well.”
Commuters have been urged to take a photograph of the identifying number on the back of the cards issued by the SSA.
