More than 100 stranded in Tobago

Terminal Manager of Government Shipping Services (GSS) Michael Samuels yesterday confirmed that over 100 persons had been stranded in the sister isle on Easter Monday, following the hectic holiday weekend.

However, Samuels could not furnish a reason for this occurrence, but instead offered an explanation as to the possible causes. He stated that unconfirmed ticket holders may have gone to the port in Tobago hoping to get on the MV Beauport’s scheduled 11 pm sailing, but that they were turned away, which resulted in their being stranded. He assured persons that a thorough investigation would be conducted to determine whether persons who were stranded on Monday had been the holders of confirmed tickets or not. Samuels revealed that the Panorama had been commissioned to sail yesterday only, in order to alleviate the situation.

Questioned as to whether the Panorama had been insured to carry persons, Samuels replied “As far as I know, everything is in place for them to operate,” adding that this was not the first time a situation like this had arisen. Last Thursday, the scheduled sailing of the MV Beauport was delayed by some three hours after the 40-member crew withheld their labour to protest the non-payment of wages. Executive Manager of GSS Leon Grant stated that following a meeting between the union and the Port Authority of TT (PATT), an interim payment had been agreed upon. Calls by Newsday to Tobago to obtain a comment from Grant on Monday’s situation proved futile.

In a release late yesterday afternoon, Public Relations Manager Betty Gibbons said this Easter season, the PATT recorded an unprecedented number of passengers travelling on the Beauport and Panorama. While thousands of passengers from Trinidad made their outgoing trip to Tobago last Wednesday, the majority of persons wanted to return by Monday, claimed Gibbons. She stated that “this unfortunately caused a bottleneck, with some passengers not being able to get on board the Beauport for Monday night’s sailing from Tobago.” As a result, the PATT put on an extra sailing of the Panorama early yesterday, which left Tobago at approximately 7.45 am, carrying passengers who had been unable to return before.

Gibbons revealed that in light of this, the PATT decided to speed up the turn around times of the two ferries, to ensure that all passengers vacationing in Tobago could be accommodated. The PATT apologised for any inconvenience caused, and sought to assure persons that measures were being put in place to ensure that problems of this nature do not arise in the future. These include a new computerised system which will be launched on April 28, which will make the PATT’s ticketing system much easier and more efficient.