A Changing Of The Steamship Guard

To the editor: I can imagine some higher-ups in the Steamship Authority must have shed a few tears when they realized the possible end to an era of deafness and abuse toward its customers and port communities that was not going to fly anymore, or at least to the extent that it has.

SSA management should recall that they never shed any tears when, for years, Falmouth residents were denied sleep due to the SSA expansion to pre-dawn freight scheduling through residential neighborhoods.

SSA management wanted to do everything only their own way. As a result, their blindness led to a barely functional ferry system with no meaningful website and reservation system, consistently poor communication with its customers, a pattern of gross overspending on projects large and small, and the complete alienation of the residents of SSA port communities. Meanwhile, the SSA continued to insist on the necessity of a Taj Mahal-sized ticket terminal in Woods Hole in an era of electronic tickets, the purchase of three used freight vessels with 15-year-old pollution standards, and $1 million per year wasted on advertising for an unreliable “lifeline.” I hope those overseeing the transition to new SSA leadership will have the courage to choose one or more people from the outside to direct the SSA. That externally recruited leadership must know what a good ferry operation is and how to get the SSA to become one. Progress will require positive, creative thinking, a forward-looking approach, and an understanding of the fragility of our physical and social environments. The past non-stop abuse of customers and port communities alike must stop. If the SSA is to be a true lifeline, it must be one for everyone and not only for special interest groups.

I look forward to the day when no one on either side of Vineyard Sound is forced to suffer as they have under current SSA leadership. May the new SSA leadership be for the betterment of all. That new leadership cannot come soon enough. It remains a shame that the public will have to wait more than a year to see that new leadership.

Damien Kuffler
Woods Hole