To the Editor:
As we on Martha’s Vineyard prepare for another summer of tourists and the consequent distress they bring to the Steamship Authority and thus to the Island’s permanent residents, I would like to know why Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, alone among the several inhabited islands served by ferry systems in their states, continues unsubsidized. Obviously, dependence on a farebox system, as SSA does, has resulted in fares that are in some cases 20 times higher than rates in subsidized systems.
I understand that the legislation establishing the current Steamship Authority in 1960 deliberately ruled out any subsidization. Perhaps that approach made sense for a system that supplied a total of 8,000 to 9,000 people on both islands. Certainly, given the wording of the legislation, it was a good deal for the commonwealth. If costs became excessive, taxpayers in the host communities would be assessed.
Now, of course, the Islands’ year-round population approaches 40,000. From the reservation system to the condition of the vessels that serve the Islands, the SSA is in constant distress — and that is its winter condition. Meanwhile, our thousands of year-rounders struggle to leave and return when necessity calls us off-Island, and we pay exorbitantly for the privilege. While we hope that oversight and new management may correct the myriad structural issues within the SSA, the issue of annually rising fares is really the commonwealth’s problem. We are voting citizens of this state; we deserve its protection from the predations of a monopoly.
Robert Gilpin
Vineyard Haven