Thousands of ferry cancellations between Woods Hole and Martha’s Vineyard over the past two years have had Islanders questioning the reliability of their lifeline.
Thousands of ferry cancellations between Woods Hole and Martha’s Vineyard over the past two years, followed this month by the abrupt departure of the Steamship Authority’s longtime engineering and maintenance director, have had Islanders questioning the reliability of their lifeline across Vineyard Sound.
“There is a perception that cancellations are up,” said SSA communications director Sean Driscoll. “It can vary widely from year to year.”
Despite the perception, according to numbers provided by the boat line, cancellations in 2019 were down significantly over the previous two years.
From January through November, the latest month for which the numbers were made available, the Steamship Authority called off 830 scheduled trips between the Cape and Islands from January through November.
That total pales in comparison to 2018, when 1,463 trips were canceled, more than 1,000 of them on Vineyard routes. Many of those cancellations were due to mechanical problems aboard the vessels Martha’s Vineyard, Woods Hole and Island Home, which among them had racked up more than 550 cancellations by the end of April.
Mechanical issues caused 617 of that year’s cancellations, weather 625 and 221 were attributed to “other,” a category Mr. Driscoll said is used for cancellations when specific trips are under-booked. “If there’s a trip that has low bookings and we can accommodate passengers on another trip, we do that occasionally,” he said.
In 2017, the boat line had 372 mechanical cancellations, 574 for weather and 472 for other, totaling 1,418.
In the first 11 months of 2019, weather accounted for 540 missed trips. Another 234 trips were canceled for mechanical reasons and 56 for other.
Not all cancellations translated into missed crossings for ferry passengers, Mr. Driscoll said.
When ferries break down, he said the boat line substitutes other SSA vessels when they are available. But problems arise when the backup ferry also malfunctions, as happened last month after the freight boat Katama went out of service due to steering problems.
The SSA plugged Katama’s sister ship Gay Head into the scheduling gaps, and then the Gay Head also suffered a mechanical problem, leading to more missed trips.
While Gay Head was able to return to service in less than a day, the Katama has remained at the boat line’s maintenance facility in Fairhaven undergoing repairs. Mr. Driscoll said the ferry was expected to be back in service Friday.
Across all its routes and ferries, the boat line completed 22,208 crossings in the first 11 months of last year, out of 22,414 originally scheduled.
The Vineyard routes saw more trips completed than originally listed, with ferries making 15,461 crossings when 15,408 were initially planned.
And while the boat line can add trips to replace disabled vessels and match customer demand, it is powerless over the weather.
Of 350 cancellations over 11 months on the two routes to Martha’s Vineyard, 188 were for weather, 24 mechanical and 32 other.
October was the cruelest month for ferry passengers, who saw the longest suspension of service since the blizzard of February 2013 shut the SSA down for nearly 40 hours.
“We were down for two days Columbus Day weekend,” Mr. Driscoll said. “It was a serious storm. Nothing was running.”
Overall, in October 284 trips were canceled, 174 of them on Vineyard routes. November, by comparison, saw 73 weather-related cancellations on all SSA routes.
The SSA’s smoothest sailing was in July, when there were no weather cancellations and four each for mechanical and other reasons, and May, when four trips were canceled for mechanical reasons. Nantucket had the roughest 2019, with 254 cancellations due to weather and 204 for mechanical reasons. The high-speed ferry Iyanough lost one of its four engines in April, accounting for more than 70 missed trips that month.
Keeping the current fleet of 10 ferries in operating condition was the responsibility of the boat line’s director of maintenance and engineering, Carl Walker, until this month.
A 24-year Steamship Authority veteran, Mr. Walker’s employment ended Jan. 3, Mr. Driscoll confirmed in a terse email the following day.
Pressed for more information, in a followup email on Jan. 6 he said Mr. Walker’s position had been eliminated due to organizational restructuring at the boat line.
“Oversight of the department now falls to director of marine operations Mark Amundsen,” Mr. Driscoll wrote.
The realignment was not one of the recommendations from the comprehensive review conducted in 2018 by HMS and Glosten.
The maritime consultants recommended a management chart placing the now-eliminated maintenance and engineering position on the same tier as the directors of marine operations and shoreside operations.
HMS recommended that all three positions report to a chief operating officer, a new position directly under general manager Robert Davis.
Mr. Davis has resisted the idea of having the directors report to anyone other than him. Several new positions were created at the consultants’ urging, including dividing the former director of operations position into separate marine and shoreside posts now held by Mr. Amundsen and Alison Fletcher. But the recommendation for a chief operating officer has received little attention from the SSA board of governors.
Mr. Davis and Mr. Amundsen were unavailable for comment this week.
As for cancellations, the overall message, Mr. Driscoll said, is that they are always a possibility.
“People . . . think that the Islander is the only good boat we ever ran,” he said, referring to the long-serving ferry, built in 1950, that plied the Vineyard route until she was retired in 2007 and replaced by the Island Home.
“They tend to forget that the Islander did cancel and there was often three feet of water on the freight deck,” Mr. Driscoll said.
“The Islander was not going to run on Columbus Day weekend.”
Comments
Why are the SSA Governors
T Bone Oak BluffsWhy are the SSA Governors allowing Davis to resist hiring a COO? Does he fear that hire? The governors need to force this issue.
It is shameful. How could
MelIt is shameful. How could such a reliable service deteriorate so fast? I never experienced a late boat when I lived there 10 years ago. Embarrassing, shameful, no excuse.
This is not difficult, tie
Mark EdgartownThis is not difficult, tie governance and compensation to performance with a new management team and performance will dramatically increase.
Spoke to friend in Seattle
Arnie Reisman Vineyard HavenSpoke to friend in Seattle where he says our SSA is a constant joke butt. The ferries seem to run quite smoothly in Puget Sound. Cancellations are rare. I still recall a Harvard Business class wearing tee shirts that read OUR SSA IS ASS BACKWARDS! Pathetic.
Maybe that person should be
ECS Ft Lauderdale / EdgartownMaybe that person should be running the SSA, seem to have a good handle on the issue.
I don't know if Davis
SSA ICU OBI don't know if Davis inherited a pending maintenance disaster or the disaster simply occurred on his watch. Either way he needs to be held accountable. Hanover needs to rise above his personal friendships and do what's right for the Islanders and the SSA.
Marc Hanover's decade-long
John EdgartownMarc Hanover's decade-long Vineyard representation on the SSA Board has in the end not been successful in halting deterioration of service by the Steamship Authority. Hanover needs to step aside when his term ends in February 2020. Can the Vineyard not find a committed volunteer with experience running a large organization to apply to the Dukes County Commission and serve as the island's new representative to the SSA Board?
No.
ECS Ft Lauderdale / EdgartownNo.
I would never want to defend any recent SSA representative's record though it does take more than one person to turn this operation around. I just don't ever hear or see any real leadership in any island postions from the SSA to the town commissioners. Its sad. So much go along to get along, except we don't get along.
I don't mind not getting
Jesse The RockI don't mind not getting along as long as the SSA runs. The consultant made recommendations, and some of them are being, to put it bluntly, ignored. Stop with the namby-pamby at SSA leadership and get things done.
Will she or won't she?
Farmer WTis.Will she or won't she?
Can I get to the Plane/appointment/family reunion or can't I.
A new level of Island stress has become a topic of conversation over the last 24-36 months.
Build a workhorse boat suitable for the winter Vineyard waters and leave the summer boats for the tourists.
Yes build a liner a North
Merry pippin Long islandYes build a liner a North Atlantic rated liner
I agree. We need a dependable
Julie Robinson West TisburyI agree. We need a dependable boat that can go through all kinds of weather. I rode the Islander for almost its entire life. It was dependable. A double ended, so it did not have to turn around against the wind. Not too top heavy. So make the modification so the freight deck isn’t covered in water in rough seas. We need a boat that goes in all kinds of weather and seas. We need tourism but we also do not want to congest our roads and towns so much that we scare people away. They love to come to the Vineyard to avoid the heavy traffic on the mainland. Last year, there was too much traffic on our roads. Let’s not kill the golden goose. We need to save what makes us love the island.
it is time for true change at
jon west tisburyit is time for true change at the SSA. things are obviously not working and they are not taking the recommendations of the consultants
I just got my December 20th
ECS Ft Lauderdale / EdgartownI just got my December 20th Gazette with the article 'Woods Hole Bardges ...'.
Shame on the SSA Commissioners for allowing this boat line to be run in its current state. Shame, shame, shame! Another example of the absolutely inept management of everything from Island towns to the airport and SSA which has to fall on the people running the Island.
I thought Davis was a horrible choice to run the line from the outset and his tenure has only proved so many people who shared that thought correct. The SSA commissioners have had amble time to hire a COO, give him/her some time to prove his/herself and then promote to that person to run the line assuming they prove to have the skills and Mr. Davis can go back to accounting.
The entire plan for renovating the SSA has been a fiasco and to make the barge excuse for cancelling trips is rediculous. Weather is understandable but the planning of the construction should have been properly coordinated with the boat line schedule which could have/should have resulted in proper advance communication with customers when there was a true construction conflict and trips needed to be canceled, occasionally.
Where is the recently hired communications director on all this. The performance of that position appears to be unacceptable. Terminate the current occupant, hire a competent CEO for the SSA and do something about the communications. I see no reason to have the position frankly; it just isn’t that big an organization and competent management and software could improve the current state of communication affairs. The SSA reservation software should have a facility that automatically emails those holding reservations with the facility for someone to enter relevant information concerning the delay/cancellation none of which shouldn't require a full time communications director. Maybe I am missing something but as I see it the only thing the boat line needs to communicate reliably and timely are schedule issues - stop the advertising completely.
Finally, raise the fares sufficiently [including implementing prime time pricing] on non-property owners and non-full time residents [which would probably reduce prime season auto traffic to some degree] to support the proper operation of the SSA including preventive maintenance and proper compensation to attract qualified management.
617 mechanical failure
Al West Tisbury617 mechanical failure cancellations out of 22,208 total trips are almost 3%. How does this compare with other critical transportation facilities in other locations? Given that the SSA is a monopoly, this figure seems disgracefully high, doing damage to our island's people and infrastructure. The management seems ossified, notwithstanding and consultant's report, we need new leadership. Its time for Hanover and Davis to resign or be fired.
Why bring in a Chief
TedWhy bring in a Chief Operating Officer from outside the Steamship Authority? That would only upset a decades-long line of internal succession within SSA management.
What behoves me is how they
Catherine PlymouthWhat behoves me is how they can raise car fairs, yet again in Nov of 2019 to $81.00 one way when. If I recall, the one way fair 3-4 years ago was $48.00! I thought it was bad when the went to $68.00. This last increase was totally theavery. The burden of running the SSA has fallen on vehicle crossing. It's truly wrong & such a rip off. I would never live on the island unless I had my own power boat to get on and off. I feel for the islanders. I love the place and am grateful I can travel there in my own boat!!! Who makes these decisions?!?!?
Sorry but nobody on the
John Cape CodSorry but nobody on the Islands, Mainland or anywhere else can control what weather conditions mother nature throws at all of us on a daily basis. Cancellations due too weather are based on safety for the passengers / crew /vehicles /freight & the ferry,and if they sail ignoring those conditions it's a liability issue opening the door for lawsuits to be filed. Mechanical issue's happen as all mechanical things have issue's, such as your own car for example, but can be minimized with a properly administered maintenance program, which is an issue that needs to addressed.
I so wish there was a New
JR NY/MVI so wish there was a New Bedford car/truck ferry line. Then there would be 2 lifelines to MV, which seems evermore needed. And a heck of a lot less traffic through besieged Woods Hole.
But New Bedford got whacked by the Woods Hole/Boston mob and their ‘only we can be the MV ferry lifeline’ fear mongering propaganda lie.
So here we are at the mercy of a callus monopoly. And why can’t we have a New Bedford car/truck ferry line again? I think the canard was that service then wouldn’t be dependable.
This is spot on, more
Mark EdgartownThis is spot on, more competition means better service and lower prices.
Competition, folks, that is
Lorraine EdgartownCompetition, folks, that is what we need. Monopolies are not efficient.
The entire plan for
ECS Ft Lauderdale / EdgartownThe entire plan for renovating the SSA has been a fiasco and to make the barge excuse for cancelling trips is ridiculous. Weather is understandable but the planning of the construction should have been properly coordinated with the boat line schedule which could have/should have resulted in proper advance communication with customers when there was a true construction conflict and trips needed to be canceled, occasionally.
Where is the recently hired communications director on all this. The performance of that position appears to be unacceptable. Terminate the current occupant, hire a competent CEO for the SSA and do something about the communications. I see no reason to have the position frankly; it just isn’t that big an organization and competent management and software could improve the current state of communication affairs. The SSA reservation software should have a facility that automatically emails those holding reservations with the facility for someone to enter relevant information concerning the delay/cancellation none of which shouldn't require a full-time communications director. Maybe I am missing something but as I see it the only thing the boat line needs to communicate reliably and timely are schedule issues - stop the advertising completely.
Finally, raise the fares sufficiently [including implementing prime time pricing] on non-property owners and non-full time residents [which would probably reduce prime season auto traffic to some degree] to support the proper operation of the SSA including preventive maintenance and proper compensation to attract qualified management.
Your points largely make
Mark EdgartownYour points largely make sense with the exception of soaking seasonal residents and tourists. The response to every issue the island faces can’t be to just charge someone else. Island residents already enjoy a substantial subsidy in the tax dollars that go to year round infrastructure that seasonal residents and tourists don’t use. Let’s not put the island economy at risk, we already must deal with the repercussions of the ridiculous short term rental tax. The economic expansion is long in the tooth and will end at some point, I think you will have a different view point in a recession.
I think Islanders are quite
Kate Putnam EdgartownI think Islanders are quite right tone concerned about their lifeline. The heightened level of worry is reflected by the greater uncertainty as to whether boats will run. We can get weather predictions and know the likelihood of weather causing a problem but many problems have not been truly weather related. They relate to poor maintenance, possible poor design and issues about wind and the barges doing construction in Woods Hole creating cascading effects.
There are a couple of points that don't seem to get addressed anywhere. One is that the big barges sitting in Woods Hole block access when the winds is up. This is not a function of the Coast Guard saying the boats can't run when it is blowing 40 MPH. This is the boats not being able to navigate around the barges. It would help if the SSA was open about that and how long it will be a problem because it may be a problem again next winter when they take slip 3 out of service. Add to barge navigation issue, there is no vacant slip in Woods Hole into which a ferry that could run could go. That is likely the source of the Columbus Day fiasco because the Nantucket was siting in VH and might have been able to run. it is the one boat that can run when the weather is a problem, but it had no place to go, since both working slips in Woods Hole were filled with boats that cannot run in less than perfect weather..
Secondly the SSA is run by accountants. Both Mr. Davis and his predecessor Mr. Lamson were accountants by training. They did not come up through operations. They were not trained in project management. Very few major companies are run by accountants. There is a reason for this: they are good at cost control but not at process control. We need a senior manager who understands good processes. that includes processes for managing major overhauls and repair, managing routine maintenance, managing employee training, managing customer engagement, managing cost effective operations. The report that was done is very clear about that. We are entitled to know why the board does not find that a compelling argument.
I have heard a lot of concern about Mr. Hanover and his role. I do know know Mr Hanover so It is close to impossible for me to know if he has been an effective advocate for the Island. It is possible know that he has been dedicated in his unpaid service by measuring the time he has put into the job. I think it would help in finding his successor if we were grateful for his commitment. As a board member he should not be talking about what happens in the board room. That makes it difficult for him to clarify where his opinion may differ from other board members or management. What right minded person would want the job if they knew that all they would get was public criticism?
Lastly, there is no question but that there are better-run, more cost-effective ferry services. Benchmarking against the Delaware River ferries, Puget Sound, western Scotland etc is an excellent idea. We know how we differ in weather, climate and seasonality but there is a lot we can all learn from the experience of others.
The New Bedford trip is twice
Ghtdragon MvThe New Bedford trip is twice as long. Meaning that you would need twice as many ferries to carry the same volume
A New Bedford line would
JR NY/MVA New Bedford line would exist WITH Woods Hole, picking up throngs of southern traffic and offering a diverse line in times of Woods Hole line outage and vice versa.
It is not an either/or proposition. More lines equal more of a lifeline through a more diversified marine transportation system.
New Bedford would be twice as
VH voice VHNew Bedford would be twice as expensive, too, and take twice as long. That would make the cost of living here rise. It would take many dollars to redevelop that port. Who is paying for it? On the upside, eliminating the trips over the bridge would be nice.
The Steamship Authority is
JS MV/SeattleThe Steamship Authority is the most expensively run ferry in the country. This is true in absolute terms and per mile, and among unsubsidized and subsidized lines.
***1. The Bridgeport & Port Jefferson Steamboat Company (Unsubsidized, Privately Owned)
Bridgeport to Port Jefferson
Distance: 18 Miles
Crossing time: 75 minutes
One way car and driver:
Off peak: $59 ($3.28/mile)
Peak: $62 ($3.44/mile)
***2. Cross Sound Ferry (Unsubsidized, Privately Owned)
New London to Orient Point
Distance: 16 miles
Crossing Time: 80 minutes
Priority Auto and driver one way: $73 ($4.56/mile)
Auto and driver one way: $61 ($3.81/mile)
***3. Steamship Authority (Unsubsidized, pays no taxes by state mandate, regulates all other competition by 60-year-old state Enabling Act)
Woods Hole to Martha’s Vineyard
Distance: 7 miles
Crossing time: 45 minutes
One way trip for vehicle under 17’ without driver*: $81 avg. ($11.57/mile)
***4. Cape May-Lewes Ferry (State Owned)
Cape May to Lewes
Distance 17 miles
Crossing time: 85 minutes
Vehicle with driver Mon-Thurs: $35 ($2.06/mile)
Fri-Sun & holidays each way: $38 ($2.24/mile)
***5. North Carolina Ferry System (State Owned)
Cedar Island to Ocracoke
Crossing Time: 2 hrs 15 mins
Distance: 22 miles
Vehicle and/or combination less than 20’ including driver: $15 ($.68/mile)
***6. Washington State Ferries (State Owned)
Seattle to Bremerton Route
Crossing Time: 1 hr
Distance: 17 miles
Vehicle under 22’ including driver peak season: $19.15 ($2.23/mile)
*Steamship Authority charges an additional fee for the driver. No other line charges this fee.
Your observations are most
Kate Putnam EdgartownYour observations are most helpful. I am struck by how it can take five people to tie up the boat and that is on the freight deck slip end. There are at least two more at the other tossing and catching a line. Then there are those who are attaching the passenger ramp which can take as many as four people, two on the ferry and two on the boat. On the Cape May to Lewes trip I took there were two people in total on land: one to let you into the loading area and one in the building selling gifts and tickets. The people on the boat handled the connection to the slip including operating a passenger ramp that ressembled an airplane passenger ramp. I have got to believe that a lot of efficiencies could be achieved over time with a little bit of process improvement.
So much money is being spent
Vasha Brunelle VHSo much money is being spent on large fancy boats and ticket palaces. Then the SSA advertises to increase demand... this is a positive feedback that benefits them and anyone who wants wants ever more crowds here. What we need are good strong no-nonsense reliable work boats to simply get us across the sound.
Many people contend that the
Islander Too TisburyMany people contend that the newer boats are less seaworthy for our conditions than older boats, and consequently there are more weather-related cancellations.
## I think we need a database of each vessel's cancellations due to weather, by date, along with a description of weather conditions. It seems obvious that larger, higher, higher-capacity vessels will have more windage and therefore mandate greater caution---i.e., more cancellations---in windier conditions.
The article's headline says
Bobbie EdgartownThe article's headline says "fret". I've talked to a number of people who are scared.
Add new comment