Return of the Superferry?

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

I received this notice as part of an email this morning, to determine whether there's an interest in bringing back a ferry system for Hawaii:

August 1, 2017
Aloha:
The State of Hawaii Department of Transportation (HDOT) is conducting a study, at the request of the Hawaii State Legislature, to determine public opinion, interest, and level of support for an intra-island, intra-county and inter-island ferry service.

We are working with SMS Research to conduct an online survey of stakeholders like you to understand issues related to a ferry service and to identify potential ferry users. All comments will remain confidential as SMS Research will provide our study team a summary report with no attributions to any individual. We hope you are willing to participate in this undertaking.
If you are interested in participating in this online survey, please send your name, title, organization name, e-mail address, and phone number to info@smshawaii.com. SMS Research will respond to your message with a link to the survey and a unique password.

Here's the complete notice, pdf:
https://gallery.mailchimp.com/9c2ea730b5...017.01.pdf

(It's) what the existentialists called "awful freedom" the reinvention of irrationality by marginalized people, just in order to spite science. -Elif Batuman

[SBH]

Thanks for sharing

[kalakoa]

Wasn't the last ferry service an all-day journey that cost half as much as a plane ticket?

It would be cheaper to subsidize airfare for residents.

[Kahunascott]

quote:

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Originally posted by kalakoa

Wasn't the last ferry service an all-day journey that cost half as much as a plane ticket?

It would be cheaper to subsidize airfare for residents.

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How do you get your car on a plane??????????????????

[kalakoa]

How do you get your car on a plane???

Rent one at the airport?

I guess bringing your own car on a 14-hour trip to Oahu is a good deal ... if your time is free.

[terracore]

When I was in Alaska I remember reading that the ferry system took the majority of the transportation budget but transported the least amount of people, and that was WITH the high fares they were charging.

I understand that Alaska real / Hawaii imaginary ferry systems are apples and oranges but Kalakoa is right, it would be cheaper to subsidize airfare (or subsidize car rentals?) than to start a ferry system. The difficulty in such a subsidy is how to apply it so that Hawaiian airlines and the bureaucrats aren't the only ones who benefit from it. Hawaii missed the boat (no stupid puns intended) when The Early Protectors shut down the first and last attempt for a free-market ferry system unfunded from tax dollars. Nobody will be stupid enough to try anything like that again, and if the bureaucrats try to do something similar, we will wind up with the marine equivalent of the HNL rail system that costs 4 times as much as promised and delivers 10 times less service. And all of us will get our taxes raised to sail a ship around the islands that none of us use.

I took the ferry from Maui to Lanai and back, I affectionately refer to it as my voyage on the Barf Boat. I understand that the trip to or from Molokai is even worse. (The voyage TO Lanai was fine because seas were calm in the morning... on the return trip FROM in the afternoons, not so much). Hawaii doesn't have the calm, protected waters of Alaska's "Inside Passage". It's got rough, puke inducing seas. No thanks, even on a bigger boat. It would have to be a HUGE unaffordable vessel for me to consider it.

So would I support the original Superferry? ABSOLUTELY. None of my tax dollars were harmed in that brutal experiment.

Support the state's "we had no other choice" tax-and-spend version: NEVER.

Is there a third option, tricking another private corporation to fail in this endeavor, would I support that? Sure, but I wouldn't invest in that company. How are the telescope folks doing?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaii_Superferry

"Hawaii Superferry was a Hawaii-based transportation company that provided passenger and vehicle transportation between Honolulu Harbor on the island of Oahu and Kahului Harbor on Maui. Legal issues over environmental impact statements and protests from residents of Maui and Kauai temporarily delayed the implementation of service...Ferry operations were suspended in March, 2009 after the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled that a state law allowing the Superferry to operate without a second complete environmental impact statement was unconstitutional.[2] The company went bankrupt as a result of these actions preventing service in Hawaii.[3] On July 2, 2009 a Delaware Bankruptcy Court granted the company's motion to abandon both the ships Alakai and Huakai, ending all possibilities that the company might return to Hawaii;[4]

ETA: content, content, content

[randomq]

Floating bridge? Hawi sea-doo rentals? Maui is only 20 miles away. I hear it's a little rough though...

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

I took the ferry from Maui to Lanai and back, I affectionately refer to it as my voyage on the Barf Boat. I understand that the trip to or from Molokai is even worse.

I've been on the boat to Lanai Harbor and the larger boat to Club Lanai both out of Lahaina. The afternoon can get choppy. The Superferry was much larger than either of those, so would have been a much smoother ride in rough seas.

(It's) what the existentialists called "awful freedom" the reinvention of irrationality by marginalized people, just in order to spite science. -Elif Batuman

[TomK]

"I guess bringing your own car on a 14-hour trip to Oahu is a good deal ... if your time is free."

The previous super ferry project would have taken about four hours from the Kona side of the Big Island to Honolulu, complete with your own car. The savings would have been significant for families traveling between the islands. I have no idea where you get the 14-hour thing from.

[terracore]

Here's a good article on how the Superferry was failing even before the environmentalists shut it down:

http://beatofhawaii.com/hawaii-superferry-failin/

It burned twice as much fuel per passenger compared to air travel. Winter weather travel caused sea sickness and service cancellations. According to the "promotional price" at the time, it wasn't less expensive than air travel.