July 24, 2012.Dear Sir,I was shocked, listening to the Minister of Transport Mr Walter Roban. I have never seen a person struggle so much with words to explain to the public about the conditions of the ferries. I ended up feeling sorry for him. First of all, in my opinion, he should not be in Cabinet because he resigned from the past Ministry of Environment where he made two decisions which ended up being a conflict of interest. In my opinion they were political favours. It’s nice that Mr Bean overturned the decision.The ferry boats were purchased at millions of dollars by Dr Ewart Brown to improve the ferry service, especially St George’s and Dockyard. If the St George’s ferry has done 1,500 trips in the past ten years it was lucky. The St George’s ferry was purchased with the intent to travel in any reasonable weather condition. We have had more cancellations than the regular schedule and that had turned out to be a disgrace. There have been incidents of ferry pilots crashing into the docks, and poor maintenance for the ferries because the pilots and engineers were not trained long enough to deal with the operations of these boats.These boats are really sophisticated with electronics. The mechanics/engineers who worked on diesel and gas engines find it quite a challenge working on the jet propel. In my opinion Bermuda would have been better off getting single hull boats and increasing the speed on them, plus they accommodate more passengers. The Warwick-Paget ferries are single hull and are still working very well. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out. Purchasing those ferries was a financial blunder.Minister Roban, before purchasing new ferries, first check with some old Bermuda seamen and ask them what they think about the single hull versus double hull boats. The purpose of the ferries was to decrease the traffic use and city parking. These ferries were equipped with canteens to service the passengers on their trip to their destination and they were never used. I was shocked to hear the A/C system has broken down and the pilot ordered the door to be kept open. The sign above the door says, keep the door closed while ferry is operational. If an accident would have occurred the insurance company would surely decline the claim due to negligence.Minister Roban, are these ferries insured and what are they guaranteed for? I don’t see you lasting very long in this Ministry because the political rhetoric is on the borderline of lies. Just come out and be honest about situations, you would be more respected as a politician, after all things do break down. Your advisers do give wrong information at times, but it’s up to you as the captain of the ship to pick out the truth.W.S. FOXSmith’s