To the Editor:
You report that Jim Malkin, the Vineyard’s Steamship Authority’s member, expressed concern that allowing 41 North Offshore to carry freight by barge from New Bedford to Martha’s Vineyard “could potentially give away truck revenue, an important income source for the authority, as well as scheduling issues for the busy Vineyard Haven terminal.”
Additional freight service from New Bedford would benefit Islanders. Vineyard Haven terminal would be less busy if there were fewer SSA freight boat trips there. How many freight vessel trips could be eliminated by one barge trip? How many fewer trucks crowding Vineyard Haven’s Five Corners?
With alternative freight services available, SSA costs would decrease through carrying less freight — less fuel, labor, and maintenance expenses. Maybe it wouldn’t need all three of the new freight boats it has ordered, at $5.6 million per vessel, plus $13.6 million per vessel, to convert them from offshore supply vessels to ferries.
The authority’s draft agreement allowing 41 North Offshore to carry freight to Nantucket gives SSA a fee of $213 for each docking, plus additional charges of up to 50 percent of the authority’s “total average revenue per truck over 20 feet for its Nantucket route the previous year for each vehicle carried by [41 North Offshore] on a one-way basis between New Bedford and Nantucket.”
James D. Sullivan
Cataumet