SSA Supports New Ferry Plan

Boat Line Managers Recommend Private Firm for High-Speed, Year-Round
Service Between New Bedford and Vineyard

By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer

Senior managers at the Steamship Authority are expected to recommend
today that the boat line issue a long-term license to New England Fast
Ferry LLC to operate year-round, high-speed passenger service between
New Bedford and the Vineyard.

New England Fast Ferry, a newly formed consortium based in Falmouth,
is one of two companies that responded to a request for proposals (RFP)
two months ago.

The ferry company is requesting a 12-year license, the Gazette has
learned.

Boston Harbor Cruises also submitted a proposal, but it is
understood the Boston company will wind up in second place today after a
detailed staff review that has been under way for weeks.

The timing of the recommendation is somewhat awkward, as Boston
Harbor Cruises is planning a demonstration of high-speed ferry service
tomorrow in Woods Hole, Vineyard Haven and New Bedford.

The schedule for the demonstration was still undecided at press time
yesterday.

A formal review of the management recommendation on the RFP will
take place at the monthly boat line meeting next Thursday morning in
Woods Hole. SSA governors are not expected to vote on the proposal until
the April meeting. If the license request is approved, the ferry service
is not expected to begin until next year.

The proposal from New England Fast Ferry was the only one of the two
that offered to run year-round service; year-round service was listed as
advantageous in an addendum to the RFP.

The proposal calls for using two, 100-foot-long, propeller-driven
boats for the service, with one boat running between the State Pier in
New Bedford and the SSA dock in Vineyard Haven, and one running between
State Pier and the SSA dock in Oak Bluffs. The year-round component of
the service would only run into Vineyard Haven since the Oak Bluffs
wharf is not suitable for winter docking.

The Steamship Authority also examined the feasibility of running
high-speed ferry service itself, but it is understood that managers will
recommend against SSA service. Top managers at the boat line believe it
is unwise to put SSA capital at risk to test a new market, especially
against the backdrop of more urgent capital needs that include replacing
the ferry Islander and refurbishing the Oak Bluffs wharf.

In short, expanded ferry service between New Bedford and the
Vineyard is now well down on the list of priorities for capital spending
at the public boat line.

The decision to recommend issuing a license to a private carrier for
expanded New Bedford service is expected to trigger a labor dispute with
at least one maritime union. But SSA managers reportedly are unconcerned
about union fallout because the license is for a new service and the
boat line still plans to run the summer passenger ferry Schamonchi.

"There are two different markets here. The Schamonchi would be
the cheaper ride and the longer ride," Vineyard boat line governor
Kathryn A. Roessel told the members of the Dukes County Commission in a
brief report about high-speed service between New Bedford and the
Vineyard on Wednesday night. At the time of her report, the staff
recommendation was not yet complete.

But it is understood that New England Fast Ferry came out the clear
winner in the management review that will go out to board members today.

New England Fast ferry has offered to pay a license fee of about
$100,000 a year to the boat line, depending on how many passengers are
carried. The two ferries - which are not yet built - would
carry 149 passengers each. Ticket prices are planned at $20 for a
one-way passage, with a variety of discounts available for commuters,
senior citizens and children. New England Fast Ferry plans to run a
route through Quicks Hole, while Boston Harbor Cruises had proposed to
run through the Woods Hole channel, which is shorter but more hazardous
in the summer months because of heavy traffic with recreational boats.

Because it is still only a proposal, there are many issues left to
be settled if the board of governors votes to adopt the recommendation
in April. Unsettled details include lease terms for the use of the State
Pier in New Bedford, a plan to share parking revenues from New Bedford
and protection clauses for the Steamship Authority in the event the
service fails.

The request for proposals that went out early this year followed two
years of wrestling over expanded ferry service from New Bedford, both on
the Cape and Islands and in the state legislature.

Late last year the state legislature adopted new enabling
legislation that expanded the board of governors from three to five
members by adding voting members from New Bedford and Barnstable.

Along the way a proposal for a trial high-speed summer passenger
service and a separate freight service was approved by the boat line
board, but later abandoned after New Bedford city officials pulled the
plug on the program in the middle of a political storm that raged for
months.

The staff review of the RFP included a detailed of review of other
options. SSA chief executive officer Fred Raskin said this week that
boat line treasurer Wayne Lamson explored a variety of creative ways to
move traffic out of Falmouth and Hyannis, including moving the ferry
Nantucket onto the New Bedford run and running some kind of freight
service between New Bedford and the Vineyard.

Last fall, Ms. Roessel said she would not support expanded SSA
service to New Bedford until the boat line found a way to stem the heavy
operating losses on the Schamonchi. Purchased by the SSA two years ago
under the watch of former boat line governor J.B. Riggs Parker, the
Schamonchi lost some $800,000 last year.

Boat line managers are also expected to confront the tricky subject
of lost revenues - both from the ferry Schamonchi and from the
Woods Hole run - because any new service is expected to divert
some traffic from SSA ferries. The lost revenue phenomenon is often
referred to as "skimming the cream" when it applies to
summer passenger ferries which operate in the lucrative summer months
and not in the unprofitable winter months.

Chartered to provide dependable, year-round service to Island
residents, the boat line is allowed by state law to license its
competitors in order to protect its own revenue stream.