Public Meetings This Week On Steamship Authority Rate Increases

FALMOUTH – The Steamship Authority is holding open house gatherings on the Cape and Islands this week concerning widespread proposed rate adjustments.

Management is proposing increases to vehicle fares to both Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. Excursion fares would go untouched. The price of annual parking in the Falmouth and Hyannis lots would jump by$100 to $200.

Officials estimate the moves will raise $14 million of operating revenue in 2025. The Steamship Authority says the proposal was made in order to ensure sufficient income to meet next year’s cost of service. 

At a board of governors meeting last week, Falmouth representative Peter Jeffrey said the ferry line is hampered by an outdated Enabling Act, and asked the traveling public to reach out to elected officials for help. 

“If they can think of ways to get the Legislature to fund our capital expenses so that we’re not offsetting all the debt that we have to take on in bonds to make these capital expenses, I think that’s a strategy moving forward, but outside the authority of this board,” he said.

For more information on the 2025 budget, click here.

Here are this week’s meetings:

-Monday on Nantucket, 3:45 to 5:45 p.m. at the Nantucket Public Safety Facility on Fairgrounds Road. 

-Tuesday on Martha’s Vineyard, 5 to 7 p.m. at the Tisbury Senior Center on Pine Tree Road. 

-Thursday in Falmouth, 5 to 7 p.m. at the Steamship Authority Administrative Offices on Palmer Avenue.