SSA Traffic Slips

By JULIA WELLS

Early summer passenger traffic on the Steamship Authority's
newly acquired New Bedford ferry Schamonchi is down compared
with last year, even though the boat line has launched an
advertising program to boost ridership on the ferry.

"We're off," said boat line treasurer Wayne Lamson
yesterday.

Passenger traffic on the Schamonchi is down 18.6 per cent
for the month of June compared with last year, but Mr. Lamson
said about half of the loss in passengers can be traced to a
breakdown that took the boat out of service for most of the
first week in June.

Engine failure was the cause of the breakdown.

Last summer, under previous ownership, the Schamonchi
carried 13,596 passengers in the month of June. This year during
the same period and under new ownership by the SSA, the
Schamonchi carried 11,062 passengers.

The ferry was out of service from June 2 until June 8 when
the starboard engine failed.

Mr. Lamson said yesterday that 87 passengers were carried on
the Schamonchi in the first week of June compared with 1,381
passengers carried in the same week last year. Subtracting for
the approximate 1,294 passengers that could have been carried on
the Schamonchi, Mr. Lamson said the numbers still end up down
for the month.

The boat line bought the Schamonchi from owner Janet
Thompson in January of this year for $1.6 million. The ferry
operation is expected to lose between $600,000 and $900,000 this
summer. The SSA has launched an aggressive advertising program
to promote the Schamonchi including billboard, radio and
newspaper advertising. There are also now plans on deck to
replace the Schamonchi with a high-speed passenger ferry.

The Schamonchi runs between New Bedford and Oak Bluffs.

Meanwhile, boat line traffic statistics released yesterday
show that overall passenger traffic is up, car traffic is about
the same and truck traffic is down a pinch.

A total of 268,319 passengers were carried on SSA ferries
through June 30, compared with 260,111 passengers carried in the
same period last year.

But Mr. Lamson said the overall numbers are somewhat
misleading because of the addition of the ferry Schamonchi to
the fleet. "If you look at the 11,062 passengers carried on the
Schamonchi and you look at the fact that overall passenger
traffic is up 8,208 — then for the sake of real comparison [with
last year], passenger traffic is off by 2,860, or 1.1 per cent,"
he said.

Total car traffic to both Islands is up just over one per
cent, and total truck traffic is down by 45 trucks or 0.6 per
cent.

Mr. Lamson said passenger traffic to Nantucket is up — both
on the high-speed passenger ferry and the traditional ferry that
runs between Hyannis and Nantucket.

He also said it is important to consider Saturdays when
comparing traffic this year with last year. "You have to look at
where the weekend falls. You have five Saturdays [in June] this
year versus four last year, so it may be that we were down even
more. It was camouflaged somewhat by having the additional
weekend," Mr. Lamson said.

Saturdays are traditionally heavy travel days on boat line
ferries.

Traffic statistics are not complete for the Fourth of July
holiday, but Mr. Lamson did say that the boat line parking lots
in Falmouth were not completely filled during the weekend before
the holiday. The lots were filled during this last weekend, he
said.

Mr. Lamson said freight traffic between New Bedford and
Martha's Vineyard has increased slightly this year on the
private carrier Seabulk Minnesota.

Overall numbers are misleading because the pilot freight
program started a month earlier this year, but Mr. Lamson said a
comparison of the weekly and daily numbers in June shows that
the Seabulk carried an average of about 100 trucks a week
compared with about 80 trucks a week during the same period last
year. That breaks down to about 18 trucks a day compared with
about 14 trucks a day last year, Mr. Lamson said.

He said he expects truck traffic on the New Bedford freight
run to increase again in August and then to drop in September,
October and November.

The pilot program is in its second year of operation; this
year the program was extended to run from April through
November, instead of from May through October.

The program was also altered this year to allow the
transport of pickup trucks; last year the program was limited to
trucks over 20 feet in length.

Last year the boat line lost about $1.2 million on the
freight program.