Stranded passenger appeals to Rowley

An hour later, an annoncement was made that the TT Express, scheduled to leave Tobago at 6.30 am, had to be rescheduled as it remained docked at the port in Port of Spain for mechanical reasons.

A passenger, Juliet Nimblett who had a confirmed ticket in hand said, “I reached the port early and sat down waiting for the boat only to be told that it was delayed. I sitting here and I don’t even know when I would be leaving Tobago. This is absolutely poor,” she said.

Nimblett then appealed to Rowley.

“Lawd…the system needs help, this is not good enough.

Where are the decision makers, where are the policymakers. I realise the Tobago House of Assembly cannot help so now they have left me with no choice but to call on the Prime Minister.

“Where is the Prime Minister who claims he is Tobagonian… we need to see his ‘Tobago-ness’.

The people of this island are really going through some trying times.

We need him to come and deal with these issues,” Nimblett said.

At about 1.30 pm, the water taxi Paria Bullet, used to service the North/South Trinidad route arrived at the Scarborough Port filled with passengers. It departed at 2.45 pm with a full complement of passengers. The TT Express is currently the only vessel being used to service the seabridge as the TT Spirit is undergoing emergency maintenance repairs.

PAIN ALSO IN TRINIDAD Stranded for more than 24 hours at the Port-of-Spain Ferry Terminal, a Tobago businessman yesterday called on Government to, “Buy new boats and soon”, as a way to put an end to the chronic breakdown of the TT Express and TT Spirit. The businessman from Calder Hall, who gave his name as Stephan, told Newsday that after conducting business in Trinidad on Wednesday, he was scheduled to return home on Thursday on the 6.30 am sailing. However, the TT Express developed problems with its electronic systems” on June 1 and was unable to complete the sailing from Port-of-Spain as scheduled.

Almost nine hours after he was originally due to depart PoS, Stephan and other passengers with vehicles were allowed to board the ferry at 3 pm Thursday, ahead of a planned 4 pm sailing.

Unfortunately that didn’t happen.

Stephan said, “At 4.15 pm, they apologised for the extended delay and asked us to hold on for half an hour while they attempted to finish fixing the ferry. When the time was up, they asked for another half hour. They ended up giving us that same excuse about four times.” “Then, after 11 o’clock Thursday night, they tell us the sailing cancelled. Eleven o’clock in the night eh! They offered us water and sandwiches but no accommodation, so I and many others slept on chairs in the passenger area.

There were 180 vehicles and about 30 had come off before they really decided to say the sailing cancelled.

Most of the passengers that remained on the boat were those who were travelling with their vehicles.” After an uncomfortable night sleeping on a chair and a morning spent trying to get answers about when the ferry would set sail for Scarborough, Tobago, Stephan’s reaction to what he said has become a regular occurrence had moved from anger to resignation and a deep yearning, “to go home.” “This is real stupidness. I asked everybody I could think about asking - the manager, a supervisor, port police. One minute they telling you the boat will leave at noon, then when 12 o’clock come, they telling us something different.

But I see they now starting; after 1 o’clock in the afternoon, to take vehicles on the boat. Hopefully we will actually leave PoS this afternoon.” The non-sailing of the TT Express affected the 4 pm sailing from PoS on June 1 and the 6.30 am sailing on June 2 from Tobago. This weekend’s sailing schedule was adjusted so that today, the ferry will depart PoS at 4 pm and from Scarborough at 7 am. Tomorrow, passengers will leave from PoS at 6 am; using water taxi operations and at 3 pm on the ferry. Meanwhile passengers in Tobago will leave the port in Scarborough at 9.30 am on the ferry and at 4 pm on “water taxi operations.”