{"id":159718,"date":"2025-09-21T17:53:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T17:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/159718\/"},"modified":"2025-09-21T17:53:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T17:53:12","slug":"reduced-ferry-capacity-sparks-frustration-in-st-brendans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/159718\/","title":{"rendered":"Reduced Ferry Capacity Sparks Frustration in St. Brendan\u2019s"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t&#13;<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/mv-grace-sparkes.jpg\" class=\"header-image\" alt=\"Reduced Ferry Capacity Sparks Frustration in St. Brendan's\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Photo via GovNL.)<\/p>\n<p>The mayor of St. Brendan\u2019s is calling it the \u201cstraw that broke the camel\u2019s back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The island relies on ferry service and the replacement vessel for the Grace Sparkes which can carry 80 people and 16 vehicles, has\u00a0a much lower deck capacity.<\/p>\n<p>Mayor Bill Broderick says efforts to convince the department responsible to add another trip have \u201cfallen on deaf ears.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That, coupled with the fact that the island currently has no medical service, is of great concern to residents.<\/p>\n<p>The Department of Transportation says the Sound of Islay can accommodate nine or ten vehicles, and can transport one large commercial vehicle or transport truck.<\/p>\n<p>The department says it received Broderick\u2019s request to add a 10:30 a.m. run, but\u00a0 a \u201cthorough review\u201d determined that current demand does not necessitate an additional run.\u00a0 Since the Sound of Islay has been in service, there has only been one\u00a0sailing when the first departure from St. Brendan\u2019s was at full capacity, and no vehicles have been left behind on the morning departure since the vessel began services. The\u00a0department says some residents may choose to line up early to secure a spot on the morning run, but the data does not indicate a systemic issue with capacity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; (Photo via GovNL.) The mayor of St. Brendan\u2019s is calling it the \u201cstraw that broke the camel\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159719,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-159718","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}