Cruise ships and public transport

In addition to the question-and-answer session with Premier Ewart Brown, tonight’s town hall meeting in St. George’s included a presentation on the results of the cruise ship ports study and upcoming public transport improvements.

On cruise ships:

• Computer simulations have been conducted on the feasibility of getting larger cruise ships into St. George’s harbour through Town Cut. Broadly speaking, these found that vessels over 800 feet in length would require modifications to Town Cut to enter safely. (For comparison, St. George’s current cruise arrivals are around 680 feet long, Panamax class ships are up to 975 feet long and Post-Panamax ships are over 975 feet).

• Wave studies have been done on the impact of widening Town Cut by between 50 and 150 feet (the current width is 250 feet) to accommodate the larger ships. These found that this would significantly increase the height of waves in the harbour and would lead to “significant environmental damage to reefs and habitats”.

• As a result, St. George’s mayor Mariea Caisey reconfirmed her preference that Town Cut should not be widened.
  

On public transport:

• Buses will run every 15 minutes (until midnight) on major routes from next year. This includes routes 10 and 11 between Hamilton and St. George’s. This is great news.

• The Government is considering purchasing another Warbaby-class fast ferry. If this happens, it will be used to augment the service on the Hamilton-Dockyard-St. George’s route, including the commuter route.

• The Government is considering increasing the frequency of the ferry in the evening.

• The new fast ferry between St. David’s/St. George’s and Hamilton will be free all week between 11 and 15 December. It will also be making an additional evening trip for late night shoppers, starting Friday 8th December. The service will leave St. George’s at 6pm and return from Hamilton at 9.15pm.

• Next year there will be an additional ferry service on the St. George’s-Dockyard-Hamilton route, leaving St. George’s at 9.30am and returning from Hamilton at 3pm.

• The Government and the Mayor would like to see Tiger Bay redeveloped as a public transport hub.
  

» I'd like to thank Larry Jacobs from the Department of Transport for sending me a copy of his presentation on the cruise ships and public transport. You can download it here (warning: at almost 3 MB, it's a big file).

Comments

[The Limey on 30.11.06 at 17:50]

I'd like to thank Larry Jacobs from the Department of Transport for sending me a copy of his presentation on the cruise ships and public transport. You can download it here (warning: at almost 3 MB, it's a big file)

[Aratan on 01.12.06 at 10:25]

Increasing the frequency of buses to 15 minutes would be great, but what does the Government consider "major routes"? For those of uas living between Hamilton and Flatts, the service is lamentable. Buses stop at 6.15pm during the week; there is only one bus every hour on route 3 (Middle Road) on Saturday.

More smaller buses will be great, as long as they also have the same degree of access for the elderly.

Aratan

[Marly on 01.12.06 at 11:19]

I also read that they are going to add another berthing port at the Dockyard for the extra large ship as the alternative for widening Town Cut and 2 rock passage.
On transportation as a whole i think this is a good start. It will be interesting to see the ridership of the ferry during the weeks leading up to Christmas. It's good that the buses will be running more frequently also.

[Triforce on 02.12.06 at 15:03]

Interesting presentation, however:

There isn't any solid details regarding bus service in '07. "Major" routes means what? I would define it as Somerset-bound and St. George's-bound service only, ie routes 7,8,10 and 11. I'd like to see info regarding the routes that currently end at 6:30 or thereabouts (particularly what Aratan mentioned on Route 3).

Hopefully that will be forthcoming very soon.