To the Editor:
There are many advantages to 41 North’s proposal for developing a marine freight highway between New Bedford and the Vineyard. Diversification of the Island’s freight route should be a safety priority for Vineyard leaders. Is the two- to three-day breakdown of Vineyard boats out of Woods Hole in 2018 that distant a memory?
A small amount of the Vineyard’s freight, some of which originates in New Bedford, would not need to clog Cape highways and an obsolescent bridge in Bourne.
A new maritime route for the Vineyard could serve as a model and positive reinforcement of best practices for the Steamship Authority.
41 North’s proposal from New Bedford could offer at least a modicum of relief to Bourne and Falmouth residents and visitors, who currently endure 100 percent of the Vineyard’s hundreds of heavy freight trucks daily.
Vineyard members of the Steamship Authority Port Council have spoken against the 41 North proposal to allow the launch of this proposed new freight barge service from New Bedford.
The new service from New Bedford would amount to one or two trips only a month, 41 North explained during a recent Port Council meeting.
It is hard to find convincing Tisbury and Oak Bluffs Port Council representatives’ argument that one or two barge trips a month from New Bedford will overburden Tisbury’s and Oak Bluffs’ carrying capacity and existing traffic congestion. One of the two proposed time slots for unloading is at 6 am. The other is at mid-morning.
Truck staging will occur only on SSA property.
The annual growth of freight truck numbers to the Vineyard through Woods Hole averages 4 percent per year. That growth has continued unabated during the past 20 years. Today’s trucks to the Vineyard continue to grow longer and heavier.
41 North’s projected service of 5 to 10 trucks a month out of the 5,000 trucks per month carried by the SSA today would represent an increase of less than a quarter of a percent in freight truck numbers in Tisbury and Oak Bluffs.
This is a quarter of a percent, against a background of a continuing 4 percent per year increase of freight trucks through Woods Hole.
This same quarter of a percent of trucks would undoubtedly find its way to the Vineyard on the Steamship Authority.
41 North is proposing an on-demand service in particular for special events that the Steamship Authority cannot accommodate, when regular truck reservations have already been made months in advance.
Representative Dylan Fernandes spoke in favor of the 41 North proposal at the public hearing for the proposal in April. Not a single person spoke against the 41 North proposal at that hearing.
Dozens of letters from Falmouth residents in support of the 41 North proposal were received by the Steamship Authority.
A SSA staff recommendation memo is in favor of the 41 N proposal.
Nantucket’s representative to the SSA Port Council has repeatedly vouched for how useful and valuable 41 North barge service from New Bedford has been for Nantucket. 41 North in this way is providing relief to the burden of island freight trucks passing through Hyannis.
Tisbury and Oak Bluffs leaders must see the broad regional interest of launching a new freight service from New Bedford.
41 North’s proposal is a very limited but concrete plan to experiment with barge shipping from New Bedford to the Vineyard.
Residents of Southeastern Massachusetts demand approval of the 41 North proposal.
Nathaniel Trumbull
Woods Hole
