Islanders got their first glimpse last week at the Steamship Authority’s new reservation system that is expected to be rolled out next year. 

Planned to replace the 1990s technology that currently handles the more than 500,000 cars and trucks that travel between Woods Hole and Martha’s Vineyard annually, the new reservation system will be cloud-based and designed to streamline terminal operations, ferry line officials said at an open house Thursday.

Thomas Innis, a technology consultant for the Steamship Authority, said that the Steamship will switch to a “one-system” model where all data is managed on a central platform. The website’s interface will change to have a “responsive design” that will adapt to different types of screens with the goal of being more user-friendly.

“This is a pretty radical change,” he said. “This is not just making sure that customers are comfortable with the new experience, but really making sure that everybody at the terminals [and] everybody at Mashpee is also ready for this change.”

Meeting was held in Tisbury on Thursday. — Ray Ewing

About 20 people attended the open house at the Tisbury emergency services building to hear about the new system and offer input. 

The Steamship Authority earlier this year hired E-DEA, an Italian company, to build the new reservation system. Mr. Innis, whose company Gibbous LLC recently did a top-to-bottom review of the ferry line’s information technology systems, said the new reservation system will be similar to the one E-DEA designed for the Scottish ferry company Caledonian MacBrayne.  

He gave attendees a demonstration of how the Scottish ferry reservations work. The website guides users through the ticket purchase process step-by-step in what officials hope will be a more streamlined and intuitive way. Additionally, the sample website adapts its screen presentation depending on the type of device being used, making it easier to manage reservations on-the-go when compared to the current system. This will also lend itself to a more robust mobile notification system for real-time changes, officials said.

“The Steamship right now has one desktop experience that’s different from the mobile experience, that’s different from the other mobile experience[s],” Mr. Innis said. “We’re making sure that everything’s aligned.”

Additionally, standby could become virtual on the new platform, meaning it will be possible to “get in line” for a ferry without being physically at the dock.

The existing reservation system dates back to 1997 and has been a concern for both passengers and Steamship officials in recent years. The system, whose sole owner is inching towards retirement, has crashed several times during the first day of summer vehicle reservations. Many users have also complained that the system is not staying updated to reflect real-time space availability aboard the boats.

Mr. Innis said the new technology will make it easier to manage the website’s back-end, which will in turn improve the user experience.

“This project brings a whole new level of functionality and capability for internal,” he said.

Steamship treasurer and comptroller Mark Rozum said that in order to maximize the new system’s potential, other structural and policy changes must take place. For example, he discussed improving channels of communication between different Steamship staff and the technology itself so passengers can have the most up-to-date information possible on cancellations and new availability.

“T​he goal is to get what’s in the system to match what’s actually in the dock and on the boat, to get the inventory flowing both ways correctly,” he said. “Part of this process is not only [changing] the system, but looking at our policies and behaviors…. So there’ll be policy changes to help improve the efficiency of all system changes.”

Thomas Innis shows off the CalMac system, which will be similar to the new Steamship one. — Ray Ewing

The public question and answer part of the meeting led to more larger questions about how the Steamship operates and how it could be better.

There was discussion of the Steamship Authority’s current system for accommodating medical transports and whether or not it should change. Attendees also questioned how the waitlist will function on the new platform and how the new system will support customer-to-customer ticket transfers without encouraging a secondary market for Steamship tickets. While there were no definitive answers to some of these larger questions Thursday, Mr. Innis said the Steamship will continue working with the public and the contractor to come up with solutions.

Also discussed was the possibility of eliminating paper tickets in favor of e-tickets. When informally polled, about half of participants said they’d rather use e-tickets, though others said they prefer physical tickets.

Mr. Innis noted that officials also want to hear what people like about the current system so it can be preserved.

“We also want to make sure that as we’re going through this process, we don’t break the things that are working inadvertently,” he said.

Ferry line officials have said they hope to roll out the new software in the spring of 2026 on the passenger-only Nantucket fast ferry, before implementing it fully on the Nantucket and Vineyard routes, possibly by the end of 2026.

In the meantime, Steamship officials have asked the public to sign up as beta testers for the new system by emailing [email protected]. Another open house on the reservation system will be held on Dec. 11 at 5 p.m. over Zoom. The meeting can be accessed at https://bit.ly/TrueNorthtownhall.