Officials with SeaStreak and the Martha’s Vineyard Chamber of Commerce celebrated the start of a new commuter service to and from New Bedford during a ribbon cutting ceremony in Vineyard Haven last week.
After receiving approval from the Steamship Authority Board in September, SeaStreak has begun offering roundtrip passenger service to and from New Bedford and Vineyard Haven.
“We’re excited,” said James Barker, president of SeaStreak. “We’re trying to provide a better experience and save commuters a couple of hours every day, and get them to work on time.”
Barker said that SeaStreak has approval to provide the commuter service into April. If the service proves successful, they’ll look to extend the early-morning and afternoon ferries to the rest of the year.
The line offers a morning trip leaving from New Bedford to Vineyard Haven at 6 am, and then a return trip to the mainland at 7:30 am. In the afternoon, there’s a 3:15 ferry to Vineyard Haven, and then a return trip to New Bedford at 4:40. Barker says the trip takes about 50 minutes, give or take a few minutes.
SeaStreak is offering discounted commuter passes. A 40-trip pass costs $720, and a 20-trip pass costs $420.
Barker says that they are also offering free parking at a parking lot next to the ferry terminal in New Bedford. With the free parking, he says that costs are competitive with Steamship pricing, and commuters don’t need to take a bus to get to the terminal.
The company president says that their business plan is about saving time for commuters living in the Greater New Bedford area.
Barker says that they are also looking forward to the expansion of commuter rail service to New Bedford from Boston. He expects the MBTA to start running trains next summer. Combined with the SeaStreak, that could provide easier and faster access between Boston and Martha’s Vineyard, he says.
In an email statement to The Times, Island chamber director Carolina Cooney says SeaStreak will be a piece of the puzzle to help solve the workforce needs on the Island. “By providing workforce transport at key times, this ferry service will allow not only businesses but also the school system, hospital, and even towns to fill key positions that have been vacant for far too long,” she said. “In addition, it provides all Islanders with a new pathway to easily travel to New Bedford, and from there to Providence, Boston, New York and beyond, shaving hours of travel time. We are so grateful to Seastreak for working with the Chamber, the MV Builders Association, the SSA and other key partners to make this ferry a reality.”
Nice to see Seastreak and the SSA reviving the commuter service. I was one of the original commuters in 2003. I lived in Mattapoisett but I worked on MV at MVCS. Though the price exceeded the SSA, the convenience was without question.
Seems a bit ridiculous to go south to go north. Why don’t they just go straight to Boston?
Through the canal or all the way around.
How long will that take, cost?
What about the whales?
Love the morning run, but for anyone who works full time, how to get back home at night after work would be the issue…
Train is a scam: it’ll take forever just to reach South Station. Mere pretext to build freight system, which then accords direct Stoughton run to multinational bulk-traders moving methane, fly-ash products, etc. We pay, they play in Graftachusetts.
Forever is not 90 minutes.
Driving to Boston feels like forever.
90 minutes of remote work on the train.
Where should methane, fly-ash products, etc. be moved?
Woods Hole?
West Tisbury?
How about at a rail faculty
How about the freight facility lowers the passenger train costs.
Please be specific about graft, name names, no names is a “scam”.
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