Opening day for summer ferry reservations on the Vineyard route are Wednesday, Feb. 14, beginning at 8 a.m. The Steamship Authority booked about 7,800 transactions on the Nantucket route during its opening day last week.
Tisbury’s select board voted Wednesday to oppose a barging company’s proposal to ship large freight between New Bedford and the Steamship Authority terminal in Vineyard Haven.
The Steamship Authority is tightening its cybersecurity training program and policies around free ferry rides for employees and their families after a recent audit of the ferry line.
The general public will be able to book summer vehicle reservations to the Vineyard on Feb. 14, starting at 8 a.m. – two weeks after the reservations were previously scheduled to open.
The ferry line announced the indefinite delay last week, saying it had technical challenges Tuesday during the Head Start summer reservation openings for residents on the Vineyard and Nantucket.
The budget allocates nearly $400,000 in 2024 for the hybrid ferry, which many residents and officials have been pushing for in recent years to reduce the ferry line’s emissions in the face of climate change.
Ferry customers whose vehicles are enrolled in the Steamship Authority’s 2024 Excursion and Preferred programs may make summer travel reservations beginning at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 16, when the boat line opens its Headstart program for the Martha’s Vineyard route.
In 2018, an exhaustive review found the Steamship Authority needed to make sweeping changes. Five years on, the ferry line has made progress but still has work to do.
The Vineyard’s representative on the ferry line’s governing board said this week that the board and its advisory council have begun discussing a succession plan for the authority’s top job.
The Steamship Authority workers that have been challenging the ferry line’s Covid vaccine policy have had their arguments again rejected by a federal judge.
