It wasn’t in the headlines of the St. John Source or the Virgin Islands Daily News. It should have been.
In reporting the Public Service Commission's decision to cut 50% of the ferry service between Cruz Bay and Charlotte Amalie until fall, both stories gave little attention to the suggestion from the PSC chairman that the service be eliminated, period.
That came after the Commission heard a consultant say the STJ-STT route is a money-maker only during the winter months. Overall, the downtown route lost $450,000 last year, he said.
So, Chairman Joseph Boschulte raised the idea of killing the route.
The Source quoted him saying that if the ferry companies are franchised to get a six-to-eight percent return, “then you should be getting a six-to-eight percent rate of return. When is it time to pull the plug?”
Pull this, Mr. Boschulte!
The ferry companies asked the PSC for permission to cut all the downtown runs right away. But the Commission refused and ordered half-service until Nov. 1. (Leave CB 9:15 a.m., 11:15 a.m., and 3:45 p.m.
Return 11 a.m., 1 p.m., and 5:30 p.m.)
- Here's the Daily News story: http://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/index.pl/article_home?id=17638458
- Here's the Source story: http://stjohnsource.com/content/news/local-news/2009/08/12/psc-halves-cruz-bay-downtown-stthomas-ferry-runs
Sounds to me like a 200 passenger ferry is a great deal of “overkill.” Kinda like using a Jumbo 747 from San Juan to St. Thomas. Any smart businessman would have long ago recognized the need for change and improvement. Why not employ a smaller craft say, a 15 to 20 passenger ferry which would be much more fuel efficient, uses less crew and turning a loss into a profit. I also question the use of a consultant solely representing the ferry companies. Possibly an independent evaluation would be more acceptable.
All I can say is that I am glad I knew St John’s years ago when it was a perfect piece of heaven! All the latest news of events that I keep reading about is keeping me away from the area – don’t wish to ruin my great memories of the St John’s of yesteryear.
I hope they take in to consideration the business downtown receives by people using that ferry. We feel much safer using the downtown ferry whenever possible. Red Hook area at night is a little creepy although we haven’t used it in years and not since the upgrades.
We prefer using the Cruz Bay to Charlotte Amalie ferry. If I’m not using a carge barge, then we’d much prefer traveling on the water then to using a taxi to/from Red Hook to downtown. When there’s just two of us it does work out cheaper. The only time I use Red Hook is when transporting a car and 4 people. If anything, maybe they can look into a smaller vessel as Mike suggested.
I think they just need to charge what it costs to run the appropriately sized ferry and see if people what to pay that much. There shouldn’t be a need for a subsidy.
to the chris abbey post…
st john’s? yea you know st. john real well! this isn’t the antigua news. (you probably still don’t get it.)
ron
orfman….your personal attack against chris is off topic and is a perefect example of what is wrong with bloggers…
This topic is about ferry service…not your attack on chris’ observation that st john isn’t what it used to be, and she is correct….but…that is another topic is it not?
ON TOPIC:
the ferry companies should be order to run a 2-30 passenger craft off season….and the “money maker” on season….unfortunately (as we know here in VI legislative politics) there is nothing logical about decision making….its not a democractic body…its protect your own tribalism.