Superferry, is it good or bad for Hawaii?

[Bob Orts]

quote:

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Originally posted by bodysurf

As far as I know don't airlines also pay landing fees etc to use airports? Is the superferry paying to use the public ports as well?

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Don't know what the HSF pays or if it covers cost. Also don't know if the fees and rents the airlines pay covers all the cost of operating the airports. That would be interesting to know if the taxpayers are subsidizing the private airlines as well.

[bodysurf]

Superferry pays $4 per personal vehicle and $20 per commercial vehicle...Young Brothers pays $21/personal rig and $300/commercial vehicle...I think those harbor fees are right...

Hawaii waived landing fees after 9/11 to the cost of $20+million for a while...and for a couple years from '97 to '99(cost 40 million? or so)not sure about now if the fees cover the costs.

[gtill]

Hearing all this vitriole about SF, I guess some people deserve and are going to be happy paying the ridiculous rates we are now both between islands and mainland.
But at least they got to Sea test their ship, she's now a proven commodity. And as CS as this thing has been against SF, she is keeping on as well as can, till she gets a better offer where they're welcome. Then she can go and make some bucks. She deserves it!

And we deserve what we get. Mesa air is spooked by the hawaiian settlement, and Go might be gone, that ought to slow things down pus YB is discontinuing less than container loads, No more screen cage shipping, all goes through private shipper.

[Greg]

---------------------------------------------------------------------[quote]Originally posted by gtill

"But at least they got to Sea test their ship, she's now a proven commodity."

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What are they proving tommorrow and Tuesday with cancelations due to rough seas?

I don't feel the HSF was ever intended to survive here. Even running consistently at full capacity are they making the $650,000 a month or whatever they say they need to break even? Do the math.

I do agree that we are being ripped off by existing freight and passenger carriers.

The only way we as an Island community are going to rid ourselves of transportation and shipping pirates is to become more self sufficient.

How can this be done?

Look to the past. three hundred years ago there was a sustainable society here. Even without today's fabulous scientific and energy technologies, half a million people lived happily without "Young Brothers".

[Rob Tucker]

I read that the HSF rush to get to sea before, and inspite of, the courts shut down was to put the ship maker into a valid point of bidding for DoD contracts. It seems the HSF may be more intended as a prototype military craft, subsidized by Hawaiian taxpayers, then a bonefide attempt to provide Hawaii with another means of transport.

If this is true the HSF is only incidentially interested in passenger and vehicle counts. The long money is DoD.... not fare paying Hawaiians.

I will try to find the link to this post..... check back, I'll edit it in here.

[Guest]

There are many articles linking HSF to the DOD.

Here is a KHNL report from October.

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...As evidence, they list an article in Pacific Business News published in March 2005. In it, Superferry Board Chair John Lehman says the ship will be used to transport strykers.

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Can anyone say MARAD?

Look at This Document of Emails and just count how many times MARAD is discussed![]



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Coming home soon!

[Guest]

quote:

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Originally posted by Damon

In this weeks "Honolulu Weekly" (which will be online next week) the cover has a graphic of the Superferry decked out in camoflauge. The quote underneath:

"Unwitting Hawai'i residents may be getting a military ship in civilian camo."

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UPDATE*

Here is the Cover that I was talking about last week.

I'm not sure why the text file isn't showing up.

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Coming home soon!

[Bob Orts]

From that same KHNL report from October.

Who knows if down the road the Army puts a contract out and the Superferry wins the contract, but right now the Army's got its own transportation - boats. The Army wouldn't need the Superferry to the best of my knowledge," says Army Chief Environmental Planner Paul Thies.

So all we have is someone saying they think it will be a military ship based on it may carry military vehicles and we have someone saying the military wouldn't have a need for the HSF, and it's all in the exact same article. So who do we side with? All we have is opinions, but no real facts, evidence, or anything tangible. I for one am not in the least bit impressed with the basis people are using to say the HSF has military purposes.

Now, my interest is peaked with Rob's comment:
"It seems the HSF may be more intended as a prototype military craft, subsidized by Hawaiian taxpayers, then a bonefide attempt to provide Hawaii with another means of transport."
Now, if that's true, the HSF is doing exactly what every manufacture or provider of services does, they find a cost effective way to present their product or services to potential buyers. If HSF wants military contracts and showing the vessel in operation is a way of achieving that goal, absolutely nothing wrong with that.
BUT, government is held to a different set of rules. If the HSF was never really about an alternative civilian transportation program, or at some point HSF officials knew it was not viable as a civilian operation, the question that must be asked is: "did the Hawaii elected officials who were promoting the HSF as an alternative civilian transportation method for the people of Hawaii know?"

If they truly believe the HSF is a pure civilian transportation operation that may be used by the military, and worthy of taxpayer support, that's one thing. But if they knew the HSF was no longer viable as a civilian transportation operation, yet they deliberately concealed this fact from the people and continued promoting the civilian application... Now you have the makings of big trouble.

[gtill]

How would we know if it's never been tried? From the day it was supposed to start sailing, people screamed about it, they still are.

Right now it's getting a shakedown in our waters. Few boats are totally ready for island conditions, they all find some weakness, hence this is such a good proving ground.

How about a nightime all cargo run to kawaihae and back. Give YB somthing to think about!

SF could do a lot of good here, but we won"t have it for long, steps on too many toes, not easily controlled like matson & YB. Ya don't buck da Hui!

[loffelkopffl]

the only reason people were "screaming" about the stryker ferry is because they didn't follow the law, which the military is famous for