TOBAGO FERRY SERVICE

The Port Authority is moving to correct the deficiencies of the problem plagued Trinidad-Tobago ferry service with the planned six-month wet lease of a passenger/cargo roll on roll off boat for the run. An advertisement placed in Friday’s Newsday, however, did not provide details with respect to the minimum number of passengers the ferry would be expected to carry, the number of cabins and the volume of cargo it would be required to lift on any given trip. In turn, in the absence of specific information on when a permanent ferry will be acquired for the run the stop gap six-month wet lease may prove insufficient. The MV Beauport, which has had to transport the burden of passengers and freight, while the other principal, the MV Panorama, is on drydock, developed problems on Thursday leaving several passengers, who had booked to sail from Port- of-Spain to Scarborough virtually stranded.

A third vessel, the Windward, which was brought on the run to assist in taking up the slack created by the temporary withdrawal of the Panorama, is said to take approximately twice the normal time for the trip. The situation is clearly unsatisfactory as the Trinidad-Tobago run is entitled to a prompt and regular ferry service. Failure to operate the service on a timely basis has resulted not only in inconvenience to passengers, but delays in the trans-shipment of freight from Port-of-Spain to Scarborough and similar delays in the shipment of Tobago agricultural produce from Scarborough to Port-of-Spain. The delays in the trans-shipment of imports have meant increased warehousing fees and landed costs, and have tended to push up the cost of living in the sister isle. Further, delays in the shipment of agricultural produce from Tobago have resulted all too often in spoilage, in addition to sending up the final costs and placing the products at a disadvantage, for example against Caribbean imports of similar produce.

The Port Authority has been less than sensitive to the problems plaguing the sister isle by the somewhat indifferent service provided by it.  Admittedly, the Authority has to await funding from the Central Government for the large scale expenditure which would have to be incurred with the purchase or lease of a ferry for the service. But the immediate responsibility for the operating of the Trinidad to Tobago boat service is that of the Authority’s. Why was it necessary for the Port Authority to lease a vessel, indefinitely, for the sea link, and why was the Panorama allowed to deteriorate to such a condition as to require dry docking during the all import peak July-August season? 

Are continuous checks not carried out by the Authority which would have made prevented the vessel to be down for so  long and critical a period? We must ask this question, however: Is it not the final responsibility though of the Ministry of Works to keep itself apprised of the situation with respect to the operation of the inter island ferry service and to ensure that potential passengers are not inconvenienced? And to see that Tobago consumers, farmers and businessmen are not placed at a disadvantage? The mere wet leasing of a ferry is not enough. And with a serious question mark with respect to the availability of the MV Panorama, two ferries should be purchased to service the crucial sea link between the members of the unitary State of Trinidad and Tobago, and not one as was determined earlier. The patchwork arrangements and attitude to the clear importance of the run should be reassessed.