PM warns: Galleons Passage a slow ferry

The Galleons Passage will make its trial run to Tobago later this week and if all goes well, the vessel will be put in operation. But be warned, the Galleons Passage is not a fast ferry.

“If you want speed, don’t go on it. “Don’t go on the Galleons Passage, then come back and tell me it’s slow… it is supposed to be 22 knots, it’s a single hull 22 knots ferry, which is supposed to take a little longer to get to Tobago,” warned Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley.

He added:

“You cannot buy a fast ferry in the supermarket, you cannot buy a fast ferry in the hardware store. Let me just remind you all, that the first fast ferry that ever worked in Tobago to Trinidad was the CAT and before that we were going to Trinidad and coming back night and day.

“We bought the Galleon Passage because it was available at the time when we were out looking for a fast ferry… Fast ferries are hard to get. We bought it because eventually, we expect to use it from Toco to Tobago.”

Rowley was speaking at a Tobago leg of “Conversations with the Prime Minister” at the Anne Mitchell Gift Auditorium of the Scarborough Library last Thursday after Works Minister Rohan Sinanan announced the sea trials for the Galleons Passage, and arrival in TT of crew for the vessel last Thursday.

Said Sinanan:

“What is going to happen, next week the Galleon Passage will do its trial run to Tobago and if everything goes well we are hoping that by the third week, the vessel should be put into work. That would give us two vessels in Tobago.”

Sinanan referred to a newspaper advertisement for another fast ferry, which he said will run for two months.

“We’re hoping that we would be able to put into service a third ferry to do the inter-island route… that would be an arrangement for two years and the Cabinet did announce that the Government is going out for the purchase of two brand new passenger fast ferries. So we would have three vessels operating, once the two new ferries come in, we would replace two of the older vessels. So, we should have working three brand new vessels with a plan to replace the vessels long before we ever get to the position that we’re in now,” he said.

Rowley also said the TT Express would not be going on drydock but would be sold.

“You would have seen the Government saying we’re selling it as is, where is. That is why you would see that request for proposals for that other fast ferry,” he said.

Rowley also told Tobagonians to stop bad-talking the island.

“Don’t be your own worst enemies, stop bad talking the place. If I was in Trinidad, as I am, and I wanted somewhere to go, the last place I want to go is Tobago, because you get on as if Tobago is a hell-hole.

“What you have to understand is that when you get into difficulty, whatever the difficulty, you work your way out of it. You don’t embrace the difficulty and sink yourself in the process. Stop bad talking Tobago,” he said.

He warned that “those who are inclined to come to Tobago will look somewhere else.”

He said people were already doing so, stating that St Lucian friends have told him about many TT citizens going to that country because they were being told, “Don’t come to Tobago.”