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September 28, 2009
Ocracoke businesses feel the effect of fewer ferry runs
By SUNDAE HORN
Because of state budget cutbacks in the spring, the North Carolina
Department of Transportation’s Ferry Division made the decision
to reduce the number of ferry runs throughout the state, including the
routes to Ocracoke from Swan Quarter, Cedar Island and Hatteras.
Changes to the Pamlico Sound toll trips involved not adding extra ferry
runs in the summer. The winter schedule remained in effect year-round
for the Cedar Island-Ocracoke and Swan Quarter-Ocracoke routes, with
only four departures a day from each side. As in the winter, the last
departure from each side was at 5 p.m. There were two departures a day
from Swan Quarter at 10 a.m. and 5 p.m., and two a day from Ocracoke to
Swan Quarter at 7 a.m. and 1 p.m.
According to the DOT’s March 17 press release, the Hatteras Inlet
ferry route would follow the regular summer schedule beginning May 12.
But a later press release, dated July 31, stated:
“Due to state budget constraints and U.S. Coast Guard mandates,
the N.C. Ferry Division had to delete runs at all seven of its routes
this year, including Hatteras-Ocracoke. At Hatteras, we are now running
48 trips with eight vessels. The division does not have the manpower to
make extra runs as we have in the past, nor can we exceed the USCG
staffing rule of no crew member working longer than a 12-hour
day.”
Because of this new schedule, the press release warned, visitors could expect longer delays.
According to Lucy Wallace, communications officer at the ferry
division, in 2008 there were 10 vessels in service at Hatteras Inlet,
and they took 68 round trips a day. That means there were 20 fewer runs
per day from Hatteras all summer, and fewer runs available from Swan
Quarter and Cedar Island as well.
Wallace provided the numbers from the past three summers, and about
3,000 fewer people took the Hatteras-Ocracoke ferry this year than came
over in 2008.
While Wallace conceded that the numbers were down this summer, she
added that she doesn’t think that the change has anything to do
with fewer ferries but rather the economy.
But to most Ocracoke business owners, it seems logical that fewer ferry
trips would mean fewer visitors on Ocracoke and that fewer visitors
would mean less income for Ocracoke businesses.
According to Rudy Austin, president of Ocracoke Civic and Business
Association, most businesses on the island are down about 20 percent
from last year. Although the poor economy may be a factor, Austin
blames the lack of ferries bringing “day trippers” from
other parts of the Outer Banks.
“The gift shops, the restaurants, any of the retail businesses can tell you it’s hurting business,” he said.
Austin’s main concern, he says, is not just for this year.
He’s worried that visitors who experience a long wait for the
Hatteras-Ocracoke ferry might not want to come back.
“You know it’s an inconvenience for people,” he said.
“Some are spending five or six hours of their vacation in the
ferry line.”
“The ferries are a problem,” agrees Melinda Sutton,
co-owner of Tradewinds Bait and Tackle. “People come in and
complain about them. Leaving Ocracoke is the hardest part. I tell them,
don’t try to leave Ocracoke between 3 and 6 p.m.. Eat dinner here
and go back later.”
“My business is down from last year,” said Leslie Lanier,
owner of Deepwater Pottery and Books to Be Red. “But my biggest
concern is for next year.”
Lanier worries about visitors who arrive on Ocracoke hungry, hot, tired and bug-bitten after a two-hour wait in the ferry lines.
“They wait in the ferry line for hours, they get down here late,
and then they have to wait in line to get back over again,” she
said. “I’ve had people in the shop who are angry about the
long wait. My biggest fear is that next year they won’t want to
come. Do they want to do that again? Was it so great here for those
people to make it worth the four hours waiting for a ferry?”
All agree that waiting for a ferry to Ocracoke is bad enough, but waiting to go back to Hatteras can actually be dangerous.
On the Hatteras side, the DOT has built stacking lanes that control the
flow of traffic. On the Ocracoke side, cars just line up single file
down Highway 12, sometimes around the curve, out of sight of the ferry
landing, right on past ramp 59. This creates a hazardous situation.
It’s not safe to get out of your car, but people do it anyway.
Kenny Ballance, NPS district ranger on Ocracoke, has expressed concern about visitor safety in the ferry lines.
“Traffic is coming from both directions, the line of cars is all
the way around the curve, people are opening car doors, kids are
running around,” he said. “We’re lucky nobody’s
been hurt.”
Another problem on the Ocracoke side is that residents and commercial
vendors with priority ferry passes can’t get past the cars in
line, unless they drive on the wrong side of the road into oncoming
traffic.
But the situation should be vastly improved by next year.
Ballance reported that a third stacking lane will be built at the Ocracoke ferry dock.
“Stan White, the N.C. highway commissioner in Dare County, has
approved and set aside the money for another stacking lane,”
Ballance said. “All of Highway 12 is going to be repaved this
year, and they’ll add it at the same time.”
Ballance said that NPS needed to sign off on permits for the new
stacking lane because it will be on federal property. NPS was
expediting the permitting process so that the project can be finished
by next spring.
Even though Ballance was concerned about safety, he doesn’t think
the ferry cutbacks have had a negative impact on tourism.
“It surely hasn’t affected the amount of traffic,” he
said. “The park is up 5 percent on visitation from last
year.”
This may mean that the economy is to blame for Ocracoke’s business downturn.
“We’re seeing the same number of people in Tradewinds,
maybe even more,” said Sutton. “But what we’re
selling is a bigger volume of low-end items. We have to blame the
economy and not the ferries for that.”
Sutton does think there’s more that could be done to help the economic situation.
“If the state hadn’t cut out ferry runs and if they’d
promoted North Carolina beaches as an affordable vacation choice, we
would have had a really good year,” she said.
Chip Stevens, owner of Blackbeard’s Lodge, feels that the greater
economic impact comes from cutting back on the Swan Quarter and Cedar
Island ferry runs.
“Every hotel here has a two-night minimum in the summer, and most
guests stay for four nights,” he said. “We know that 70
percent of folks coming from Swan Quarter and Cedar Island are going to
stay here. They’re going to average eight meals or more in
restaurants and spend time in shops.”
Lots of visitors, he points out, like to come over for the weekend. But
cutting back the extra ferry runs after 5 p.m. has made it difficult
for people to get here on Friday after work. And the new ferry
reservation service that went into effect this year doesn’t allow
people to make same-day reservations. Without a reservation, the only
option is to wait in the standby lane.
“Nobody wants to risk that drive if there’s a chance they
won’t get on the boat,” he said. “And there’s
no way for them to know when the ferry is broken down or runs are
canceled. They might get to Cedar Island and then find out they have to
drive all the way to Hatteras.”
The statistics from the ferry division show that numbers are down.
Last June, 4,888 vehicles came over from Cedar Island. Only 3,727 vehicles made the trip in June 2009.
“The issues are accessibility and quality of service,”
Stevens said. “For accessibility – can they get a
reservation from Cedar Island or Swan Quarter, or can get on a ferry
from Hatteras? As for quality – we had multiple guests daily
who’d had bad experiences waiting for ferries. We heard a lot of
negative comments.”
The bottom line for Ocracoke business owners is that the ferries are
absolutely necessary for customers to get to them, and cutting back on
runs just doesn’t make sense, especially in a time of economic
turmoil.
“We’re not ‘doing fine.’ The ferry cutbacks
have really hurt business,” said Austin. “I know every
department in the state is being cut back, but we’ve just got to
figure out something different.”
During a recent informal visit to Ocracoke School, Gov. Beverly Perdue echoed Austin’s comments.
“One of the first things the General Assembly wants to do to save
money is cut back on the ferries, but I tell them that would be like
closing the roads into Charlotte. You’ve got to have
access,” she said. “We’ve got to find the money to
keep the ferries running.”
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