a1920: taxi boats (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: JHUDICOURTB@aol.com

Did you know that there are now 3 fairly large boats operating from Carrefour
to the Port-au-Prince warf?  It is about time there was some alternative
transportation for that area, and already the boats are being used at or
beyond their capacity.  Last week after the Wednesday the 24th rainstorm it
took six hours for people to get to Port-au-Prince from the Carrefour area by
car.  Jacmel trucks made the PAP-Jacmel trip in 8 hours.  Many people who are
used to leave their home at 6 a.m. to get to work between 7:30 and 8:00, got
to work between 11:00 and 12:00 on Thursday the 26.  I saw the man commonly
known as Kaptenn Meteo on TV talking about his secondary government job which
is to enforce boat traffic regulation.  He was explaining why he had to take
sanctions against the operators of the Taxi Boats when they started loading
over their capacity because of the pressure from passengers who were trying
to get to the center of town.  As he was speaking he talked about the
capacity the boats were certified for and I heard some numbers between 60 and
90 passengers.  It would be very nice now to have the same kind of transport
to get to Montrouis, Leogane, TiGwav, Saint Marc, and Gonaives.  I think
Kaptenn Meteo is usually a very competent man and the government would do
well to give him some support in his other job because the boat traffic in
the PAP bay is likely to intensify and prosper.