USVI-On-Line

Gromit is out of the funk – she now has a cause. You think hurricanes are bad – you don’t want to be in the path of Gromit if she can’t get to STJ. You Go Girl.

We leave for STJ in less than 24 hours
Is there anything new on this subject? Are the ferries still running on their regular schedule?
Thanks.
Ed

I'm trying to get a grasp on this. According to there representative they need larger subsidies because ridership is up. (see the paper http://www.onepaper.com/stthomasvi/?v=d ... 1201844023)

Unless I am missing something, with each additional passenger they get additional money, I think this is called cash flow, anyway since they have more passangers paying more money for the same number of boat runs they are making less money? Now I will admit that I occasionaly drank to much, stayed out to late, and missed a class or two in college, but I would think more people paying more money into your business would be a good thing.


I would think blaming fuel prices would be a better way to go lookig for more money.
Jay

Hi Jay,

You're right, it probably is the price of fuel that is leading to this crisis.

I'm thinking that the price charged for each passenger is set separately from the price it actually costs to ferry each passenger.

As the article says:

"Unlike the V.I. Water and Power Authority, the companies can't add a surcharge when fuel prices go up. On the mainland and in most locations around the world, ferry service is subsidized by local and federal governments, Ferron said. Governments either operate the ferry service outright or hire a contractor to run it, she said."

So, every time 100 more passengers paying $1 to cross are added to the ferry's daily capacity, it actually costs $200 more to move them.

If 200 more passengers take the ferry, it takes $400 more to move them.

The more passengers, the worse it gets.

An earlier article gave the exact figure of how much people pay and how much it actually costs to ferry them.

Of course, in reality it's probably not that simple. Likely there's an element of the personal involved, as in all politics.

This isn't the first time the ferry has had problems. I'm a STT visitor. A couple of years ago three of us took the ferry over to STJ for dinner. We walked back in time to catch an evening ferry back to STT, in accordance with the ferry's schedule, and ended up sitting there for about an hour or so since someone decided not to run that particular crossing.

This very annoying waste of time pee'd me off and I hadn't felt like returning to STJ.

Oddly, every time we have dinner at Off The Hook in Red Hook we see the ferry coming and going on time. Why we were messed about that time that we visited STJ is beyond me.

Cat