• Resources

  • All Wikis

• News

  • CH (2,604)
  • CZ (99)
  • DE (557)
  • EN (4,235)
  • ES (65)
  • FR (106)
  • HU (7)
  • IL (687)
  • IT (1,810)
  • NO (101)
  • PL (289)
  • PT (9)
  • RU (5,118)
  • SE (6)
  • TR (20)
  • UA (2,615)

MV Galicia fails to arrive for Easter

Wednesday, April 23 2014

THE MV Super-Fast Galicia, the new inter-island ferry being leased from a Spanish firm, did not arrived in time for the Easter holidays, neither will it arrive in time for the Tobago Jazz Festival.

“I am just waiting to hear the date when MV Galicia will set sail and as as soon as it sets sail the public will be told,” Transport Minister Stephen Cadiz told Newsday yesterday.

The delay for the new inter-island ferry, he said, was due to sourcing additional funding and getting the necessary approvals for the vessel to sail.

“It was our hope that because of the amount of traffic to and from Tobago during the Easter holidays and the Tobago Jazz Festival that the vessel would have arrived in time,” he said. The delays, he said, were not anticipated at the April 10 post-Cabinet press conference where he made the announcement that the services of the ferry had been acquired.

The Galicia is 11 years old and is 160 metres long and will require “minor modifications” which, Cadiz said, will be done at the ferry terminal at Port-of-Spain.

As far as he knows, the vessel, which is being leased for the sum of $48 million a year, is in Gibraltar and he is awaiting word from the owners on when it will set sail.

A letter writer to Newsday said the vessel had left Belgium and was due to arrive in Spain on April 21. As the journey from Spain to Trinidad will take nine days and eight hours, the letter writer expected the vessel to arrive in TT on May 2.

However, Cadiz said, “The only port I know that the vessel should be in is in Gibraltar. If they moved it to another port that is not our business.”

The contract for use of the ferry is for 12 months during which time, he said, its performance will be assessed and a decision will be taken as to whether the contract will be renewed.

Checks by Newsday indicated the Galicia can transport up to 112 passengers, 110 trailers and 60 cars. It was built in February 2002 by Hijos De J Barreras SA in Spain.

Comments