The state of Hawaii is considering bringing back its ill-fated, short-lived, inter-island ferry service after receiving a federal grant to study the issue.
The Hawaii State Department of Transportation received a half-million dollar grant from the Maritime Administration, which it plans to use to hire consultants to explore potential routes.
The last time the state did this, it turned out to be a boondoggle.
The Hawaii SuperFerry lasted less than two years, launching in December of 2007 as a way to shuttle both residents and tourists between islands without the expense of airfare. By and large, it seemed like a good deal. Some fares were as low as $39 one way, and passengers could bring their own cars on-board as well.
"In the beginning, people believed what they were reading, that it was going to be this really low-cost way to go inter-island and it sounded like a great thing," Irene Bowie, former executive director of the Maui Tomorrow Foundation, which opposed the ferry based on environmental concerns, told the AP. "But the devil is always in the details."
By March of 2009, the service was shut down and had to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy according to the Associated Press. Environmentalists successfully lobbied that the state had not done its due diligence regarding the SuperFerry - kayakers and surfers had famously, at one point, blocked its entry into Oahu, forcing it to turn around - and a judge agreed, ruling that the state broke the law by not completing required environmental reviews.
This time, Hawaii is hoping to do things by the book.
"The feasibility study might come back and say maybe it's not financially feasible for us to do this," said Ford Fuchigami, director of the state Transportation Department. "But right now, using federal money which is available ... we want to be sure that we use that money to see whether or not this is possible."
"Almost no ferry system in the country is self-sustaining," said Lauren Brand, an associate administrator for the Maritime Administration. "The vast majority of them have to have public dollars to help them keep on."
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