North West passengers stranded

Jan 07, 2010 News

Yesterday scores of passengers who were scheduled to leave the Transport and Harbour department wharf in Kingston, Georgetown, for the interior were left stranded after the vessel that were slated to transport them encountered mechanical difficulties.
According to Transport and Harbour’s traffic manager, Yolanda Hughes, the vessel, ‘Lady Northcote’, was scheduled to leave Georgetown at 11 hours yesterday but this was not possible, after the vessel encountered mechanical problems while it was at the mouth of the Demerara River.
According to Neil Isaacs, a passenger, the boat had to be towed back to the wharf. He said that the passengers have been at the wharf since early yesterday morning and through all of the problems they were told very little by transport officials.
Isaacs said that a number of test runs were done along the river, but these were not enough to make a late afternoon departure. Instead another vessel the ‘Kimbia Georgetown’ will now depart at 10 hours today for Morawhanna. Arrangements will be put in place to transport passengers to their final destination in Port Kaituma.
This change of schedule and multiple stops are not sitting well with many passengers. They say that they are not sure how they will get from Morawhanna to Port Kaituma since many of them are in possession of goods. Further, they say, only speedboats ply that stretch.
Many of the passengers are carrying perishable items and the new departure time will see them incurring losses.
The irate passengers opined that if there were regular checks made to the vessels the problem could have been avoided.
To compound matters, apart from being stranded for an entire day, the passengers had to pass the night on the benches and floor of the vessel, with very little to eat.
It is not the first time that vessels bound for the interior had to abort original travel plans. Recently another vessel was forced to dock overnight after it encountered a similar problem.