Coming over from St. Thomas recently, the ferry was at full capacity, making me reconsider the proposed West End ferry terminal.

But of 94 passengers, only 16 embarked before the ferry went to Road Town. The next day, only five visitors got off another St. Thomas ferry. These simple numbers help support what letter writer William Walker has asked: that is, how the BVI Ports Authority arrived at its puzzling numbers of 30,000 passengers a month in Sopers Hole — a number even customs and immigration officials question.

Seasonal ferry capacity is inconsistent at best, and in the case of customs clearance, passengers are not required to embark — rather, all paperwork is handled by the purser or captain. The headcount on paper does not match the body count on the dock, yet it is these exaggerated numbers on which the urgency for a ferry terminal is based.

It has long been agreed that we need a new ferry dock: one that has seating, restrooms, processing counters, luggage storage, a ticketing area and a café. But the terminal approved “pending traffic and impact studies” rivals the airport and the Red Hook ferry terminal on St. Thomas — even though it is located in a small, picturesque working harbour.

The plan also opens Pandora’s box to inevitable strip malls for the expanding commercial area around the site. The bend in the small coastal road is too small for traffic to the active ferry — or even Frenchmans Cay, with its fisheries-protected area.

‘Virgin Islands gem’

In addition to years of pounding pilings — and heavy equipment, traffic and noise — the terminal will be operationally chaotic, with access by barges, containers, megayachts, ferry passengers, taxis, and existing and new businesses. A Virgin Islands gem will be lost forever.    

There are many more arguments against the landfill that will be required for the three-storey, 75,000-square-foot project, including the loss of valuable moorings. This plan is even too big for Road Town. The architecture is Miami-generic instead of keying off of heritage-based Frenchmans Cay. The ambitious size of the building “has to be supported” because it is too big! Take off the upper floor, put BVIPA offices and a harbour master on second floor, and concentrate on processing passengers. That is what the facility is for.

It is disheartening that the plan has approval despite the logical arguments and protest against the terminal as it stands. No compromise effort was even attempted by officials. Can you see the BVIPA being denied now pending impact studies? Just last week, a ferry’s racing wake contributed to the swamping of a boat with passengers in Sopers Hole. Maritime traffic is going to get worse.

This plan never should have gotten approval without these crucial surveys. It is obvious that the quality of life, the environment and even the charter boat industry has taken a back seat to grandiosity. Make the ferry dock a ferry dock, not an industrial area.

Funding questions

Even more basic is where is the money coming from? Mr. Walker’s excellent analysis of time, cost and logic begs many questions. West End doesn’t even get consistent water and electricity for its residents. Surely this should be a priority.

A better location for the ferry complex is at the foot of Zion Hill — where there are boat ramps, a gas station, a grocery, a laundromat, other businesses and room for expansion.

West End is bigger than Sopers Hole. Visitors do not come to the VI for the quality of its ferry facilities. They come for the beauty. The fact remains that West End can only take what St. Thomas sends over. The St. Thomas airport is limited.

With the planned commercial centre, the boat ramp on the road, the non-contextual huge structure, and so on, we are extending St. Thomas to these shores, not creating an introduction to the VI.

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