Alcaldes de Vieques y Culebra oponen that HMS Ferries has cargo for the transport operations

Pese a que el gobernador Pedro Pierluisi the operation of the carriage of passengers and cargo between the Isla Grande and the islands of the municipality mediating a public-private alliance (APP), the alcaldes de Vieques y de Culebra, Juan A. Corcino y Edilberto Romero, respectively, se oponen a ese mecanismo.

Ambos alcaldes favorecen the creation of a cooperative to try the service, and anticipate that we will hold dialogues and meetings with the end of the contract that was passed to the APP in December passed at a cost of $ 750.9 million. The company HMS Ferries Inc. fue la seleccionada para la APP van 23 años.

‘I hope that it will be legal (the APP), but I understand that it will not work because it is different from HMS, which is the company that is working, nee hy visto cambios. There are many things in the contract that we are preoccupied with, and he is dealing with them and he is planting them, the need for them, ”said Corcino.

“For example, I preoccupy myself with the amount of low-cost travel on the road. No podemos is para atrás. How to identify residents and people in humanitarian services. Now, the maritime transport system has collapsed, ”he said.

The two alcaldes coincide, in separate interviews, in which the maritime transport is in its “peor” moment, although the transition between the Maritime Transport Authority (ATM) and the HMS Ferries company.

“This transition, according to the contract, was completed three years ago. (HMS) no va a traer embarcaciones nuevas. Follow us on the plan. We will continue to do what we do in repair, ”said the ATM’s internal director, Miguel Betancourt.

The ATM alquiló, a cost price of $ 2.2 million, two embargoes on the HMS Ferries that need to be inspected by the Guardia Costera to quickly start operating.

The ATM only has an embargo on its operation of functions: Cayo Blanco. Other names, like Julia Leigh, Mr. Mason y la barcaza Marilin S., son alquiladas.

Betancourt says that the solution to the disoriented maritime transport in Vieques and Culebra is the APP “because the new operator will have all his knowledge, ‘expertise’ and years of experience operating ferries in the United States to Puerto Rico”.

‘I’m staying with the Aliede de Vieques. Geen tenemos esperanzas con la APP porque esto lleva decades. Our residents of Culebra did not see the solution or the light at the end of the road. Hemos sido tan atropellados. The APP is working in Cataño, but has not reached Ceiba since it was most needed, ”Romero indicated.

Puntualizó que las naves alquiladas a son of HMS Ferries inadecuadas. “His catamarans include his little ones Julia Leigh who, while being his little ones, suspends the passage through the oil,” he said.