The Steamship Authority continued to make money last year, though not as much as boat line managers anticipated.
Unaudited numbers show that the SSA, beset by rising fuel costs and falling passenger traffic, brought in $1,491,957 in operating income in 2005 - a decrease of about $1.3 million from the prior year, and about $2.6 million below budget projections.
Fewer passengers rode the Steamship Authority ferries last year, continuing a trend under way since the turn of the millennium.
The boat line, which provides the only year-round passenger and vehicle service to the Islands, carried 2,609,835 passengers last year, off 63,324 or 2.4 per cent from 2004.
Passenger traffic on the Vineyard route fell 3.1 percent.
"This is the third year we've been down three per cent," Vineyard SSA governor Marc Hanover said yesterday. "There are more people living here, fewer people visiting."
Striking a far more conciliatory tone, the Tisbury selectmen stood
their ground this week in opposing a set of proposed Steamship Authority
schedule changes for next year, also calling on boat line leaders to
play a role in creating a better traffic layout at the Vineyard Haven
terminal.
HYANNIS - In the latest skirmish in the continuing battle between the Tisbury board of selectmen and the Steamship Authority, the port council yesterday backed a boat line plan to shift three summer trips from Vineyard Haven to Oak Bluffs.
The decision by the council, which advises the SSA board of governors, came over the bitter protests of council member and Tisbury selectman Thomas W. Pachico and fellow selectman Tristan Israel. The council voted 5-1, with Mr. Pachico dissenting and Nantucket member Nathaniel Lowell absent, to back the SSA plan.
Steamship Authority chairman Marc Hanover was not looking for
support from the Dukes County Commission Wednesday in his continuing
battle with the Tisbury board of selectmen over ferry fee money. But he
got it anyway.
The coastal bank just to the north of the Steamship Authority terminal in Oak Bluffs won't win any beauty awards.
