Superferry « Save Kahului Harbor

Superferry

The Super Ferry

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Parodies of SF Supporters: Souki Lingle

“[The Superferry] will also change the dynamics of nonunion trades,” Mr. Wright said. “Now, it’s more expensive to get work like roofing or plumbing done in the neighbor islands. But with the Superferry, Oahu tradesmen will be able to take their trucks on the ferry and undercut the locals.”

The Superferry will also carry S.U.V.’s and trailered boats, allowing Oahu fishermen frustrated by the island’s depleted waters to gain access to the richer grounds of Maui and Kauai – to the discontent of local fisherman. Those boats might also involuntarily carry bits of Eucheuma seaweed, which is devastating Oahu’s biggest bay, to the neighboring islands. Read more from the NY Times.

Satirical Article Mocking the Superferry’s Absurd statement that it won’t harm whales because it doesn’t have propellers.

Appeals Court Decision (big pdf file)

PWF Description of Traffic Experiment
Traffic Study Showing Level F (Failure) Conditions

Video Explanation of Why the Superferry is so much more deadly to whales than cruise ships

My Experience in the Superferry Traffic Experiment

This 340 foot by 80 foot wide ship will carry 200 cars plus 15 trucks as well as 900 passengers and take about 3 hours to get from Maui to Oahu. SuperFerry says the rates will be "half the airlines", however they have not actually set a rate and filed it with the PUC so this estimate is not to be relied on. See photo.

Superferry has $140 million in Federal Loan Guarantees and $40 million in State facility funding. This money is supposed to be paid back over the decades that the ferry is assumed to operate.

Terry White, one of the three Superferry executives, was VP of marine operations for American Hawaii Cruises which also borrowed under the Federal Maritime Loan Guarantee program and defaulted on $366.9 million in loans which taxpayers had to cover.

The Super Ferry had comprised 17% of the dock space driving the Kahului Harbor Expansion. In order to minimize impact, Super Ferry has revised their plan and will not notch the pier.

However, Harbors still intends to put them out at the end of Pier 2 which will heavily impact Young Brother’s freight operations and create an unacceptable safety risk to passengers.

We suggest co-locating the SuperFerry with the Cruise ships so as to keep passenger operations in one place. The cruise ships need to shorten their visits from 35 hours to 10 hours (like the other large ships that visit) in order to leave a 2 hour window for the SuperFerry. Our docks are for working ships — not a cheap alternative to a land-based hotel.

Many Maui residents want a ferry since Hawaiian and Aloha airlines have almost doubled their rates in the last few years. We are starting to see small commuter airlines come in around $39 one-way and this may provide relief. But many residents have pinned their hopes on the Superferry.

However, what most people don’t realize is that they will not be able to travel to any island except Oahu from the neighbor islands. Traveling from Maui to Big Island would mean paying double the fare (more than air) and spending the night on Oahu.

Superferry has now turned its focus to Maui Pine (an investor) and the military for its main business. Thus the people of Hawaii will be paying their tax dollars to support a primarily military and private business transport system. Once it begins transporting military convoys we can expect greatly increased security measures with associated impacts on small boating and other harbor users.

The State is going to build or modify docks for the Superferry on Oahu, Kaua’i, Maui, and the Big Island by 2007 when the first ferry is ready. The State is scrambling to make this deadline and bypassing an EIS which would prevent unintended side effects and spell out mitigation measures.

Our organization advocates solving the problems before we irrevocably ruin Maui by poor planning and lack of solutions. We can do this (and do it in time) if DOT is willing. [This was first written in Nov. of 2004 - and still no EIS has been done. The EIS could have been finished by now] In February of 2007 SB1276 was introduced to require an EIS by the SuperFerry.

The ferry could load 250 cars and offload 250 cars onto Pu’unene one block from the Ka’ahumanu intersection with no other outlet – the cars MUST go through this choke point. (Superferry is predicting they won’t operate at full capacity estimating about 107 cars off and on each visit plus vehicles dropping off and picking up passengers.)

This congested intersection feeds traffic from Kihei/Wailea and Lahaina into (and out of) Kahului as well as
acting as a choke point between Hana/Haiku/Paia/Upcountry and Kahului/Wailuku. The ferry may visit twice a day. Superferry tells us they have scheduled for 11am and 7pm – deliberately trying to avoid rush hour. Their solution of changing light timing is will not help since Puunene and Kaahumanu will exceed their carrying capacity.

Since ferries are a key terrorist target (a Philippine ferry was already attacked with explosives) there will need to be a perimeter fence around the 2 acre staging area for the vehicles and each vehicle will need to be searched.

So the Ferry not only needs dock space, but it needs 2 acres to store and line up the vehicles exiting and entering. Small ferry users have said there should be a large parking lot but Superferry says that most people using their type of ferry take their vehicles, so they do not anticipate large numbers of people leaving their vehicles over night.

First Superferry and Harbors decided to notch Pier 2. Then they decided to locate a barge at the end of the pier. Now they have finally paid attention to the pilots who have been saying (since 2004) that that will impact the turning basin safety.

The Harbors Draft Environmental Assessment doesn’t say where the staging area will be but Harbors has announced that they will place a barge at the end of Pier 2 and take 25% of Young Brothers’ area.

Subsequently YB announced that it would stop Less than container load service. This service is vital to Molokai and Lana’i and enables our smaller businesses to stay competitive with the "Big Box" stores who ship by containerload.

When the Kauai, Maui and Big Island County Councils passed resolutions for a Superferry EIS and there were demonstrations and protests, Lingle stepped in an brokered a deal with YB to continue Less than Containerload shipping through 2009. After that, there is no guarantee that YB will continue. YB has already applied for rate increases.

Now the harbor pilots say the barge at the end of Pier 2 will impact the turning basin – exactly what they said in a 2004 meeting with harbor users and Glen Soma of the Division of Harbors. The State has already paid for the barge and may not be able to locate it at the end of Pier 2. An EIS would have prevented this snafu. Superferry - Lehman's private navy
Ironic Composite from Juan Wilson’s Island Breath Website

If Harbors notches a football-sized chunk of Pier 2 (80×280 feet) and the Superferry fails, we will be left with an unusable pier. The floating barge will be useless. It makes more sense to build a new docking place for the Superferry where they can load and unload vehicles without clogging downtown Kahlului traffic — a strong argument for a second harbor on Maui. Could we then get Federal highway or maritime funds for this?

Regardless, Oahu needs to provide help to Maui on this clogged road situation – either alternate ferry docking location, a new road allowing residents an alternate commute route that won’t be clogged by ferry traffic, or some improvements of Ka’ahumanu and Pu’unene that allows the extra traffic to be accommodated. Changing stoplight timing is not enough. Adding parallel feeder roads or relocating the outlet is necessary.

Right now, we have some nasty alien pests (insects, frogs, weeds) on other islands that haven’t infested Maui. Many travel in mud splashed under cars. We need ag inspection and a method of removing these before the vehicles spread these plagues to Maui. (see alien species)

Our officials were shown the Spirit of Ontario to pump them up for our ferry. But after only 80 days (and $36 million in taxpayer money) the Spirit of Ontario has halted business (see story).

Experience with our previous ferry show that after one 3-hour trip across the rough inter-island channels, few want to take a second trip. Superferry is to be a smoother ride. Yet we still need to make sure we don’t end up subsidizing a private business that might not stay in business long enough to repay the estimated $180 million State and Federal investment.

The ferries of Washington State travel only half the distance of the Superferry (thus incurring half the cost) and gross about the same in (projected) fares. Washington ferries require a 50% subsidy because they operate at a loss. How can the Superferry – with double the fuel and staff costs – possibly be profitable. (See article.)

Our guess is that the owners wanted to get it up and running and "flip" it before the buyer realized its impracticality. Alternatively, they may think that after investing $40 million in State funds, Hawaii, like Rochester, will be dumb enough to take over the failing enterprise or subsidize it. Or perhaps the Stryker Brigade is its intended use after all, and they are just duping us into giving our State funds to it. In any event, there is more here than meets the eye.

Wouldn’t it be sad if we spent $40 million in State and $140 million in Federal money to build docks, terminals, parking lots and finance the ships, — and the ferry failed just like our other one did, just like a similar one did in Florida, just like a similar one did in New York?

Instead, let’s plan carefully so that our tax money is spent wisely.