Keep ferries runningMay 6, 2011Dear Sir,Being Bermuda born and now retired from work in England, I would like to visit Bermuda every two years to meet up with friends and visit my old haunts. I managed this in 2003, 2005 and 2007, but with the financial situation, the security strictures and price of air travel from Gatwick to Bermuda, I have not made it since. But this year, or next, was high on my priority list.Because I prefer to put money into Bermuda business, rather than stay with friends I always aim at the centre point of the Island namely a few yards from the Salt Kettle Ferry wharf so I can get across to Hamilton and from there pick up the ferry and bus connections without undue effort, especially when it is hot we are not getting any younger.I read the Gazette Website without fail every day and I have been rather amazed at some of the things coming to light of late. Instant strikes by transport workers I can work around I have walked from Dockyard to Somerset several times this century, but having lived there in the 1940s that was not the challenge it would be to a non-Onion tourist. Of course I would not expect cruise ship passengers to do the same!I pass over the Bermuda crime problems we face that in many places and I just hope education will slowly have an impact on the gangland shootings etc. Somerset was my childhood location, fishing from the old Watford Swing Bridge my favourite pleasure.I am amazed to see that a tourist-oriented Government is to cut back the ferry service, which is a major element of our reason for coming and staying in a guest-house where we do (hotel prices are too ridiculous to contemplate as compared with other locations in the world) and I wonder whether the Government has finally taken leave of its senses.When I read other articles, which indicate a lack of planning for the local transport infrastructure needed to support the millions of dollars of capital that have been expended at the Dockyard to take larger ships and more than one at a time, I just wonder what business model the Island is aiming at, with or without the strictures all western economies face.I just hope someone has a rethink quickly, as cutting the little connecting ferry services will drive people such as myself away to other more enlightened locations and I am one with a very keen reason to come to keep on eye on an element of my heritage.I will continue to watch your excellent website with interest. It goes without saying that I hope this policy is changed before it can do too much damage to Bermuda’s image and attraction.BRIAN HYDEKent, England