A Long Day’s Journey From Provincetown

By Mary Ann Bragg, Cape Cod Times, Hyannis, Mass.

Aug. 13–PROVINCETOWN — For all the buses, planes and ferries coming in and out of town — particularly in the summer — it’s still a tourists’ world for year-round residents of Provincetown commuting to Boston, New York and beyond.

The town’s economic development council believes reliable, year-round transportation is needed — and critical for the town’s long-term economic prospects.

On any given summer day the commute to Boston, Wakefield, New York and Detroit can be done, according to five residents who travel each week.

But it isn’t pretty.

The flights to Boston are relatively expensive, often fully booked on short notice and weather dependent. The two fast ferries arrive in Boston too late in the day for regular business hours and lack easy connections to onward flights. The bus takes too long, and in winter travel options shrink even further, with fewer flights, fewer bus departures and no ferry service.

“I usually leave at 4 in the morning,” said resident Paul Roberts , the chief financial officer for a credit card processing company, who drives to Wakefield on Tuesdays and stays in the city until Thursday evenings.

Roberts, whose been commuting for five years, gets to work at around 6:30 or 7 a.m. if he’s lucky. He doesn’t use the fast ferry because it gets to Boston at around 11:30 a.m. “What do you do? Show up at 1 p.m.?”

The Plymouth & Brockton bus takes too long, he said. Roberts does fly the nine-seat Cape Air flights in a pinch.

“If I need a night back home it’s worth it to me,” Roberts said. “They do have some good prices but you have to be going in the right direction, and I always seem to be going against the flow.”

“Going against the flow” seems to sum up commuters’ experiences. But operators of the ferry and bus companies say that weather, number of riders, fares, fixed costs and government subsidies are factors that play into whether reasonably-priced, year-round transportation can be offered.

“It’s a function of economics for the operator,” said Boston Harbor Cruises general manager Alison Nolan (CQ).

The wintry high seas in Cape Cod Bay — as opposed to more protected waters for ferries running between Cape Cod and the Islands — is the primary reason preventing year-round, fast ferry service between Boston and Provincetown, according to Bay State Cruises president Michael Glasfeld The fast ferry also needs about 22 riders to break even on operating costs, which only occurs in the middle of the summer, Glasfeld said.

For the Plymouth & Brockton bus service between Provincetown and Hyannis, the number of riders drops from highs of 3,200 in August to 425 in February, according to recent county records.

Exactly how many commuters and potential commuters there are in Provincetown and other Outer Cape towns has not been quantified — yet, according to economic development council members.

The council, formed in 2005, advises the selectmen on ways to create a sustainable, year-round economy for the town in the face of transitions in the tourism industry and other economic sectors.

The town’s year-round population is around 3,400, and swells to at least 30,000 in the summer, according to a town report.

But of the 3,377 private residences in town, about 70 percent are owned by non-residents, many from urban areas along the East Coast, who might be interested in living in Provincetown if better transportation was available, the economic development council believes.

Attorney Marcy Feller who leaves Provincetown on Monday by Cape Air and returns Friday afternoon, would like better connections to Delta Shuttle flights to New York. Information technology consultant Wayne Schmoyer , who flies out on Cape Air on Monday, often headed to Detroit for the week, has high praise for the personal touch Cape Air has with passengers but said he needs better connections with the ferry service and a one-way drop off service in Provincetown — without penalties — for rental cars.

“I would like a way to get to Boston that doesn’t cost and arm and a leg, and be on time for work,” said Provincetown resident and commuter Marty Hassell , dean of students at New England School of Photography.

“Because everything, the boats, the buses run on tourists’ schedules, it’s almost impossible to do without driving.”

Rep. Sarah Peake, D- Provncetown, travels to Boston at least three times a week, but her work day often doesn’t start on Beacon Hill until 1 p.m.

Peake sometimes drives, sometimes take a Plymouth & Brockton bus from Barnstable, sometimes take the ferry, sometimes the plane. “I tend to take the Bay State Cruise ferry because it’s the same all days of the week,” Peake said. “It’s easy to remember and you can count on them…

The bottom line for me is being nimble and always having a Plan B.”

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Copyright (c) 2007, Cape Cod Times, Hyannis, Mass.

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