Cruise ship passenger shuttle contract goes to HTA again

BY PRU SOWERS

KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

 

After discussing whether the city could take over shutting cruise ship passengers from the Outer Mole, Key West City Commissioners voted unanimously to renew the $600,000 contract with Historic Tours of America.

 

HTA was the only company to submit a bid for the contract, although Brandon DiMando, general manager of City View Trolley and Duck Tour Seafari, HTA’s competitor in the local tourist tour market, said his company would have liked to bid if the contract had been rewritten to reduce the size of the vehicles required to service the incoming passengers. The contract current requires the vendor to have the ability to shuttle 1,500 passengers an hour from the Outer Mole Pier and HTA is the only company with enough vehicles – it operates the Conch Train and the Old Town Trolley in Key West – to meet that.

 

The one-year extension of the shuttle contract keeps the city’s current $3.55 per passenger payment to HTA the same for the first six months, with an option to renegotiate that fee in the second half of the contract.

 

The city rents the Outer Mole from the U.S. Navy and is expected to take in $1.7 million his year from disembarkation fees from the cruise ship lines.

 

City Commissioners were reluctant on Jan. 6 to spend another $600,000 to drive passengers into town but Port and Marine Services Director Doug Bradshaw said setting up a ferry service would be too expensive for the city.

 

“It is estimated that initial start-up cost would be anywhere from $1.5 million to $2 million, not including a building to store the vehicles the City would have to purchase. Operating costs [are] estimated to be around $500,000. Staff feels it would be extremely difficult to hire drivers and keep drivers for the estimated 80-90 port calls each year at the Outer Mole,” Bradshaw wrote in a memo to commissioners.

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