Sunday, December 24, 2006

BRADES, Montserrat: The government of Montserrat says it is still committed to the return of a ferry service to the island and has been holding discussions with a number of ferry operators around the world, to try restore a service between Montserrat and Antigua.

The Chief Minister Dr Lowell Lewis said, "The Department for International Development (DfID) Minister agreed in principle that we can look within our available budget and find money to subsidize some form of ferry service to Montserrat during the December period and then again hopefully next year during March, April during the World Cup period. We more or less put aside a sum of money to make that happen and we subsequently made enquiries to several ferry operators, I think we contacted four or five of them in all and we may ask them to bid on a variety of services, ranging from just a weekend service or just six set sailings per week which will guarantee a minimum of fifty to sixty passengers a time to continue service.”

The ferry service between Montserrat and Antigua was terminated at the end of July 2005.

Since coming into office seven months ago the Lewis-led administration has been working to restart a ferry service alongside the air service to Montserrat.

Lewis explained that ferry operators are saying that it’s not worth their while, because there are not enough people traveling between Montserrat and Antigua and that a contract should be at least four or five months. No operators are willing to pull a ferry off a service that is lucrative and come into Montserrat for one month.

However, the Chief Minister insists, “I am still hopeful that we maybe able to attract someone to operate a ferry service for Montserrat and I will keep trying.”

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