Steamship Authority rates will remain unchanged next year, according to a preliminary $123 million operating budget reviewed by the boat line governors.
Steamship Authority rates will remain unchanged next year, according to a preliminary $123 million operating budget reviewed Thursday by the boat line board of governors.
“We are not asking for any rate adjustments for the 2022 budget. It gives me great pleasure to say that, I can assure you,” treasurer/comptroller Mark Rozum told the governors at their monthly online meeting.
Mr. Rozum is projecting a 2022 operating gain of $9.1 million, he said during his presentation, which included slides that are available on the boat line website.
The draft budget assumes 2022 operating revenues of $123.7 million against operating expenses of $116 million, with other income totaling $8.6 million and other expenses $3.5 million.
The largest changes in operating expenses are expected to come in fuel oil, payroll, pension and benefits and maintenance.
“We will be dry docking five vessels next year, for a total of just over $5 million,” assistant treasurer Courtney Oliveira said.
The budget also projects that passenger revenue will continue to decline, as it has in 2021 and 2020, while freight, automobile and parking revenue is expected to increase.
Among other business Thursday, the boat line board splintered in approving the 2022 summer and fall operating schedules, amid ongoing tensions with Falmouth residents over traffic and noise on the Woods Hole Road, especially from trucks.
Falmouth governor Kathryn Wilson voted nay, after getting no board support for her request to drop the 5:30 a.m. freight boat that carries smaller commercial trucks from Woods Hole — a longstanding bone of contention for village residents.
But as part of their vote on the schedule, the remaining board members also directed senior managers to investigate the potential for licensed freight services between the Vineyard and New Bedford, or another off-Cape port, by developing a request for proposals.
The New Bedford freight option has been studied more than once, most recently in 2016. A study by a maritime consultant that year found the existing infrastructure in the Whaling City would need millions of dollars of work to be feasible for a freight ferry terminal.
“But several years have passed since that . . . report was done, and now maybe an operator . . . may be eager to investigate and provide that service,” Mr. Davis told the board.
As approved by the board Thursday, the request for proposals will be crafted by the boat line’s long range task force, an advisory group that includes representatives living in SSA ports.
Barnstable governor Robert Jones was pessimistic about New Bedford’s prospects as a solution to the traffic woes of Cape residents.
“You can’t shrink the distance, therefore you can’t shrink the prices to go from New Bedford to the Island,” he said. “Economically, you can’t do it . . . without a subsidy.”
Additionally, truck drivers will not want to give up more than four hours of their day to make the round trip, Mr. Jones said. “It will limit their driving times.”
Complaints about boat line traffic have begun to wear thin for Vineyard governor James Malkin, who complained that continuing pressure from Falmouth residents has become uncivil.
“It’s certainly bitter and . . . a very aggressive posture against the Steamship Authority,” Mr. Malkin said, before emphasizing what the Island and Cape communities have in common.
“We’re all dealing with issues of growth,” Mr. Malkin said. “We’re all dealing with congestion.”
Both Woods Hole and Vineyard Haven are commercial ports with long-established industries, he continued, and both have long hills for trucks to climb.
“I recognize the concerns of Woods Hole. They’re mirrored in Vineyard Haven,” Mr. Malkin said.
Also Tuesday, the board agreed to allow Plymouth & Brockton Street Railway Co. to increase its stops at the Woods Hole terminal for the remainder of the year, from six round trips a day to either T.F. Green Airport or Logan via Boston to eight round trips, all but one on the Boston-Logan route.
Noting that the bus line’s request was dated Sept. 7, Mr. Davis additionally received board approval for the general manager to handle such requests in future.
Comments
Mr Jones says you can’t
Bob Morris Woods HoleMr Jones says you can’t change the distance between New Bedford and the Vineyard thus there’s no viable solution. Mr Malkin says the traffic situations on the Island are the same as in Woods Hole. In summer w two ports the Island has 5 or 6 roads from which vehicles can offload where Woods Hole has only one. So we have 5 times the burden and no benefit. Would you guys get a grip..
Bob Morris I would just reply
Bob EdgartownBob Morris I would just reply by saying there’s more than one or two businesses in Woods Hole that would disagree with you about benefits from the ferry traffic. You may feel you have enough business from ferry traffic already but you certainly get a ton of revenue out of it every day of every year. I know this for a fact because I eat in the woods hole restaurants all the time while waiting for a boat. That to me is a benefit.
How about a reduced fare for
Mark EdgartownHow about a reduced fare for propriety owners?
An estimated 80% of the SSA’s
Nat Trumbull Woods HoleAn estimated 80% of the SSA’s largest trucks each day go right by New Bedford. Studies have shown that the SSA could have a smaller environmental footprint if it shipped that freight from New Bedford rather than making truck drivers drive the additional 45 miles, often in congested conditions, over the functionally obsolete Bourne Bridge, from New Bedford to Woods Hole village. Right now the SSA shifts all the negative externalities of those truck trips right onto Cape residents and neighborhoods: diesel soot, noise, and congestion. New Bedford is a large industrial port near a large highway. Woods Hole village is not.
Trucks that come from Boston
here we go again edgTrucks that come from Boston and north are not ''driving an additional 45 miles'' to Woods Hole! They would have to drive 45 additional miles to get to New Bedford. Running boats from New Bedford is a massive increase in the carbon footprint of the SSA since the distance is so much longer between ports. Woods Hole exists because it is an obvious port due to the promixity to the Island. All the arguments about environmental footprints go out the window when you run boats with deisel so 3x the distance.
Stop trying to rewrite your
T Bone Oak BluffsStop trying to rewrite your version of history and turn Woods Hole into a fairy tale village. Woods Hole has ALWAYS been a working port. As a famous football coach once said: "It is what it is."
How about a passenger only
Will Vineyard havenHow about a passenger only fast ferry from woods hole to Vineyard Haven? Run it without a schedule, it will reduce the flow of traffic from parking lots on both sides of the ferry line.
So, having increased fares
Harry Hempilfill On and Off IslandSo, having increased fares last year because of "reduced traffic due to the pandemic" - but having also received federal aid and somewhat of a rebound in traffic: where's the fare reduction?
It seems that there's always an excuse for ratcheting up prices, but never a corresponding reduction when the basis of the excuse disappear.
The wonderful updated (and no doubt expensivly developed) charter and mission statement seem to still result in no end of ways to spend more, and no incentive to make *affordability* an important part of operations.
I'm not against paying a fair price for service. But it sure would be nice if the rationale was consistent - meaning that when fares can go down, they should. Not "as long as 'they' are used to paying the higher fare, let's find a reason to keep it".
No matter how you cut the pie
islandgirl islandNo matter how you cut the pie there are TOO MANY VEHICLES AND TOO MANY PEOPLE. We should be aiming for less cars and less people. WE need an economy that isn't all about building more (and bigger) houses and tourist businesses. We are about maxed out and there aren't enough bodies to staff the businesses that do exist. Now many have closed either early or for good and still the people come. This past 20 months they have been spending vast sums of money to buy property (as tax advantage assets) which has driven the prices of real estate and property into the stratosphere. There is a 3.01 A lot in WT for almost a million dollars and two others in the $800 to 875,000 range. Aside from lining the RE agents' pockets much of the proceeds end up leaving the island. We need to work towards a year round economy which is less volatile.
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