Stepping into the new year, the Steamship Authority has a lot on its plate, from filling its top two positions to balancing the shifting travel patterns.
As August makes way to September and the Vineyard readies its goodbye to summer, businesses are reporting mixed results even though preliminary data show more traffic on roads, runways and ferries.
Woods Hole never witnessed a morning quite like July 1, 1995.
Sunrise in the port town revealed a thick trail of overstuffed sedans, wagons, trucks and jeeps snaking its way from standby line at the packed Steamship Authority terminal to the Woods Hole Road and beyond. The standby line itself topped 400 cars; more than 1,000 passengers awaited ferries to begin a four-day holiday weekend.
Harbor reservations are at an all-time high, ferries have robust bookings and the airport is bracing for its annual onslaught of private and commercial planes.
Automobile and passenger traffic on Steamship Authority ferries plunged into steep decline this month, just as the coronavirus pandemic began its spread into Massachusetts.
Summer vehicle traffic numbers from the Steamship Authority are on track to match last year’s record-breaking figures, and backups continue to snarl Island roads in July and August.
The Island may be busier this summer, if advance reservations on the Steamship Authority are an indication.
Reservations for vehicle passage from Woods Hole to the Vineyard are up 3.5 per cent over last year, and bookings in the other direction are up 4.6 per cent, according to data collected by the Steamship Authority at the end of April.
April Steamship Authority traffic was down slightly from the same period last year, though summer numbers are showing improvement.
At the Steamship Authority board of governors meeting Tuesday in Nantucket, general manager Wayne Lamson said April passenger traffic was down 3.3 per cent from April 2012.
