A unanimous Steamship Authority board voted Tuesday against bringing back the standby line for drivers seeking to travel ahead of their ferry reservation times.
The Blue Line, a limited standby service for motorists enrolled in the Steamship Authority’s excursion and preferred program, will continue.
At Tuesday’s board meeting, held at Oak Bluffs town hall, general manager Alex Kryska said the Falmouth traffic advisory committee and bicycle-pedestrian committee had justifiable concerns about what resuming standby would mean for Woods Hole village.
Residents and Falmouth police already have objected to the number of ride share cars that congregate at the Woods Hole terminal waiting for passengers.
Future site plans for the terminal include a dedicated waiting area for ride shares, but that spot is still encumbered by the now-closed temporary terminal and a nearby construction trailer.
“We should get the temporary building and the construction trailer out of there and try to work on the ride share and getting those things cleared out, before we kind of open up the can of worms potentially that standby might bring,” Mr. Kryska.
He also acknowledged that the Blue Line needs improvement.
“One of my big [comments] I’ve heard over the summer was that the Blue Line is not working, and … I think there are ways that we can improve the Blue Line and make sure that it is really servicing our constituents who are the Island residents, both full-time and part time-people,” Mr. Kryska said.
Board member Ted Gavin, who represents the Vineyard, asked if a window sticker could be created so that terminal staff could quickly identify Blue Line-eligible vehicles.
“If we can do something that requires a minimum of effort but has a lot of payback, let’s do that,” he said.
Director of shoreside operations Alison Fletcher said her department is already in the process of ordering permit stickers and would look into Blue Line stickers as well.
Also Tuesday, the Steamship board voted unanimously to require every board member to take three 90-minute online classes from the state office of the inspector general.
The three subjects are fraud awareness, the responsibilities of board and commission members and how to manage risk and measure success. Inspector general Jeffrey Shapiro had recommended the training as part of his severely critical report on the Steamship Authority’s mismanaged website project in late 2025.
In other business Tuesday, treasurer/comptroller Mark Rozum said August was the Steamship Authority’s best month of this year, outshining August, 2025.
The authority has been working to reduce the amount of unused deck space aboard its ferries, which helped make the month more profitable, he said.
Mr. Rozum and assistant treasurer/comptroller Courtney Oliveira led the board through a presentation on the preliminary operating budget for 2027, which includes across-the-board increases in fares, parking and freight to offset sharp rises in fuel costs and other rising expenses.
“This is a bare-bones budget,” he said, with a $9.8 million bottom line.
The Steamship Authority will hold a public meeting on the budget Oct. 27 in Vineyard Haven, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center.
The board approved the 2027 ferry schedule for Nantucket and the Martha’s Vineyard schedule for January 1 through May 17, reserving action on the rest of the schedule for its next meeting in November.
The schedule beginning May 18 includes a 5:30 a.m. ferry from Woods Hole to Vineyard Haven that has been opposed for years by Falmouth residents, who annually file a petition for a public hearing on the matter.
Director of shoreside operations Alison Fletcher said this year’s hearing took place July 9 and a report has been prepared for the board’s review.
The venerable freight ferry M/V Governor is officially on the market, Mr. Kryska said, and he’s already heard from some interested potential buyers. The Steamship Authority is accepting sealed bids for the 242-foot-long double-ender through Dec. 8, according to a listing on workboat.com. A condition and evaluation survey earlier this year estimated its resale value at $325,000.
During public comment Tuesday, Amy Cody of the Steamship Authority Citizens Action Group urged the authority to continue using the lower-emission manufactured diesel known as RD-99 in the M/V Island Home, which is running on the fuel through the end of the year.
“I understand that your budget is tight. I understand every penny counts, but I think that we’re trying to reduce the toxic effects of diesel-burning ferries that go back and forth on the port communities and our environment,” she said.
“We’re not asking for the whole fleet … we’re asking you to keep it with at least the Island Home, so we don’t lose ground,” Ms. Cody said.
Earlier in the meeting, Mr. Rozum had noted that using RD-99 throughout the Steamship Authority fleet in 2027 would add $3.9 million to fuel costs that are already nearly $5 million dollars higher than in the current year.
Ms. Cody also concurred with Mr. Gavin’s call, which he repeated this week, for an outside assessment of the long-running reservation and website project.
“We need someone to look at all of it,” she said.
The next Steamship Authority board meeting is scheduled for Nov. 17 at the boat line’s administration building in Falmouth.