To relieve congestion at the Woods Hole and Vineyard Haven terminals, Steamship Authority management this week recommended extending the boat line’s reservations-only policy to year-round — effectively ending stand-by travel for motorists visiting Martha’s Vineyard.

Drivers in the SSA’s Islander-only booking programs will remain eligible for standby through the so-called blue line, which provides a dozen or more same-day spaces for residents who haven’t been able to secure vehicle reservations through their preferred or excursion-rate profiles.

For all other vehicles, reservations have been required only at peak travel times: over Memorial Day weekend, the Independence Day holiday week, Labor Day weekend and Columbus Day weekend, and on Fridays through Mondays from late June through Labor Day. 

A year-round reservations-only policy should help alleviate overcrowding in Woods Hole and Vineyard Haven, allowing Islanders and travelers to make their plans without uncertainty, operations director Alison Fletcher told the SSA port council Tuesday morning.

“Both terminals are going to be undergoing major redevelopment, which will significantly impact the space that we have available for staging over the next two years,” Ms. Fletcher said.

The Vineyard Haven terminal will lose the use of one slip while reconstruction is under way this winter, she said, while the Woods Hole terminal work is expected to last for the next two years.

“These changes will likely result in increased wait times [and] congestion at both terminals... impacting our ability to serve our travelers efficiently,” Ms. Fletcher said.

The only option for same-day travel without a reservation would be the blue line, which keeps at least 12 spaces for eligible Islanders. That program could be expanded, if reservation-only days were pushed to year-round.

“Depending on space availability, we would increase the numbers of spaces permitted for us. This will help our Islanders who have last-minute travel plans get to and from the Island,” Ms. Fletcher said.

The Islander-only standby line is called the blue line because members of the excursion-rate and preferred programs used to be mailed a blue card to put on their dashboards, SSA treasurer Mark Rozum said.

Tisbury port council member John Cahill said the service could use a more descriptive name, noting that Islanders often question him about its meaning.

“Maybe you want to come up with something that better expresses what that blue line does,” said Mr. Cahill, who also asked that any changes in the reservation policy go into effect after the holiday travel season.

Among other business Tuesday, the port council reviewed the Steamship Authority’s operating budget for the coming year, which Mr. Rozum said has been trimmed by about $2.3 million since last month.

Proposed fare increases have been reduced by the same amount, Mr. Rozum said.

The Steamship Authority now proposes to raise adult passenger tickets by 50 cents in each direction, halving the previously proposed hike of $1.

Children’s and seniors’ tickets are planned to go up by 25 cents, instead of 50 cents.

Passenger ticket cards, which the SSA still calls books, also are having their proposed increases cut by half, from $8 to $4 more for the adult 10-ride card, from $4 to $2 more for the 10-ride for adults and seniors and  from $21 to $10.50 more for the 46-ride card.

Proposed increases for passenger automobiles, freight and parking remain unchanged in the new draft budget.

The Steamship Authority board of governors is scheduled to take up the 2025 budget and rate increases at its Nov. 19 meeting.