The Steamship Authority is the Island’s lifeline, but in recent years it has been unreliable, inefficient, and downright frustrating to anyone trying to make a reservation on its flawed website.
Longtime Islanders and passenger advocates alike are sounding alarms, and calling for reforms to address a growing list of problems, particularly as the summer season approaches:
- One of the top issues is the number of cancellations. Those caused by staff shortages soared last year. Nearly 150 trips were canceled in 2024 due to staffing shortages, about triple the number from the previous year. And that’s not including so-called “planned cancellations,” which relate to crew shortages. The staff shortages forced the SSA to pre-emptively reduce the number of trips last summer — and anticipating more shortages this summer, it is expected to reduce the schedule again this season. All in, there were more than 480 cancellations by our count last year. And it comes in the middle of an ongoing negotiation with Teamsters Local 59, a labor union that represents around 400 employees in the ferry line.
- Then there are the website and reservation system. Both are outdated and operated by a “guy in Wisconsin,” as one Port Council member famously said at a public meeting where frustrations were boiling to the surface. After more than two years of development, the Steamship Authority decided to pause work on the website, raising fears that they’ve wasted millions of dollars.
- There is also the new ferry terminal in Woods Hole, and the looming question as to why there is even a need to replace what seemed to be working just fine. The construction of the much larger and more expensive set of buildings — not to mention a disruptive construction project — has baffled the public in Woods Hole and on the Island, and so many visitors near and far who are looking at the sprawling mess of a construction site and scratching their heads.
To put it kindly, it has not been a great few years for the SSA. And these much-publicized challenges have done nothing to stop SSA officials from increasing the cost to ride the ferry.
While it is easy to throw stones at the management of the Steamship Authority for these failings, we all have to start to think about how we can get at the root of the mismanagement, which ultimately comes down to a lack of accountability to the public that the SSA is supposed to serve. And to begin to assess that, we don’t have to look much farther than the Steamship Authority board — the five-member group made up of representatives of the five port communities, New Bedford, Barnstable, Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket, and Falmouth.
For too long, the failings of SSA management and the rising complaints about those failings seem to have fallen on the deaf ears of those who have served the longest on the board.
During the most recent evaluation of the general manager, the Nantucket, Barnstable, and New Bedford candidates all gave glowing reviews of the steamship’s top official. Conversely, from the communities with the most public outcry, and where members have served the fewest number of years — Falmouth and Martha’s Vineyard — the manager received a near-failing grade, both members noting that change is needed to address the mounting criticisms.
Two members of the board — the Nantucket and New Bedford representatives — have served more than 10 years. Both have served as replacements for their fathers, who also served long tenures. That in and of itself raises questions of nepotism. What is more troubling is our reporting that New Bedford representative Moira Tierney was absent from more board meetings over the past few years than she attended. Tierney missed nearly two-thirds of the board’s public meetings for 2023 and 2024 (our reporter who covers Steamship meetings reports that Tierney has started frequenting more meetings since our story came out in November). That is unacceptable, and seems to suggest indifference, or perhaps due to her absences, she just isn’t aware of the frustrations that the Vineyard public has with the ferry line.
More important than questions of nepotism are the appearances of stagnation on the board, which we believe are connected to these legacy appointments and long tenures.
That is why we strongly support term limits, which we believe could go a long way in bringing change on the Steamship board and the ferry system overall. While it won’t solve all of our problems, it will help bring new life and fresh ideas to oversee much-needed changes.
Sen. Dylan Fernandes, who represents Falmouth, has proposed legislation that would limit Steamship Authority board members to three three-year terms. As of now, there are no term limits at all for board members. It’s not the first time the idea has been floated, although it is the first time it has been proposed in its current form. And there is good momentum behind it — public action groups on the Island and Falmouth are supportive.
While helpful, term limits will not be a cure-all. We have reason to believe that there hasn’t been strong interest in serving on the board in some of these communities, although that’s not the case in Falmouth or on the Vineyard. That’s unfortunate. Perhaps we should also consider stronger incentives for board members, who, for the most part, are volunteers.
We should also say that the board has indeed started to awaken and take some action. The SSA general manager announced his resignation, and board members stepped up the dialogue around ways to improve service. But we fear that without at least some turnover on the Steamship board, change will continuously be too slow. And the future prosperity of our Island depends on a prompt solution to the steady decline of services offered by the SSA. It’s time to right the ship, and term limits will go a long way toward getting us there.
