Announcing the revised summer ferry schedule today, Minister of Transport, the Hon. Lawrence Scott, JP, MP said: “After a two-year suspension, we are pleased to bring the Orange Route back in service. This ferry route will take passengers from Dockyard to St Georges during the summer season. Visitors will get direct service to the historic Town of St. George providing support for those businesses and activities in the area. This service will operate on weekdays, Monday to Friday, when cruise ships are in Dockyard overnight.”
The Department of Marine & Ports will commence the revised summer ferry schedule on Monday, 2 May 2022.
Minister Scott also confirmed that the Pink Route would continue to operate albeit with reduced frequency. “During the Budget Debate, I indicated that the Ministry would cancel service on the Pink Route due to consistent decline in ridership. For years, ridership on this route has been declining while it costs $648,000 annually to provide the service. The competing priorities within the Ministry challenged us to examine how we could more efficiently run the service and allocate funding to critical initiatives in support of economic recovery and other key areas of the Ministry. We have heard the concerns of the people who make use of the Pink Route and have formulated a solution that retains weekday service for commuters and students travelling to and from Hamilton. The Pink Route is NOT being cancelled but we will reduce the frequency while still supporting riders who commute to and from Hamilton for work and school.”
The Minister noted that the Pink Route’s revised service schedule is similar to the service provided on the commuter driven Green Route.
This revised schedule means:
- Projected annual cost savings of $235,520
- Less overtime as the crews will be redeployed to other areas of the service with higher ridership
- lower fuel costs
A snapshot of ridership numbers since 2019 shows the steady decline:
- June 2019 – Feb. 2020 – The average ridership per day for six months period – 189 passengers per day.
- Sept. 2021 – Feb. 2022 – The average ridership per day for six months period – 106 passengers per day.
There are minimal changes made to the Blue Route, which services Dockyard to Hamilton. The ferry service will operate on weekdays from 7:30 am –8:30 pm. Blue Route supports our cruise ship passengers between Dockyard to Hamilton, including Harbour Nights. The Bermudian ferry has a passenger capacity of 700, will be the primary vessel of use, and a smaller ferry will be used during off-peak times.”
The summer public ferry schedule is posted at www.marineandports.bm