CAPE HATTERAS, N.C. (WAVY) – The North Carolina Ferry System is recognized as the second largest state-run ferry system in the country, but due to a history of cost overruns, the ferry system, by state code, is no longer allowed to go over budget when the current fiscal year ends June 30.
It is now about $2 million short due to rising fuel costs, so the ferry system is simply slashing the number of ferry trips. The combination of increasing fuel costs and decreasing ferry trips from Hatteras to Ocracoke Island has had a palpable impact on Ocracoke’s economy.
10 On Your Side boarded the the Hatteras ferry to Ocracoke Island at 8 a.m. on a recent morning.
We left behind a parking lot full of cars. Six hours later, not much will change.
“Sometimes the wait time is 2½ to 3 hours long,” said ferry operations manager Joey McGrath. “We are running every boat we have right now.”
The trip to Ocracoke takes about 1 hour, 10 minutes, which has been the reason given for fewer ferry trips each day. Hurricanes filled in the quicker 45-minute route.
We head out to meet our island guide, Hyde County Commissioner Randal Mathews, who took us to Ride the Wind Surf Shop.
When we get there, it is 10 a.m., and there are no customers in the store.
“That ferry is like the life blood of Ocracoke and right now we are getting choked off,” Mathews said.
“Choked off,” said business owner Bob Chestnut, “because fewer ferry runs mean fewer tourists on the island.”
Look at these statistics:
In 2018, during the busy time from 10 a.m. to 2:20 p.m. there were 12 ferry departures from Hatteras to Ocracoke. Today, there are only five.
“And it’s not going to improve until the ferry numbers improve,” Chestnut said.
Look at the numbers for the entire day – from 5 a.m. until midnight:
In 2018 there were 36 ferry departures. Today, it’s half that.
“If the first 5-6 days of June are an indication,” Chestnut said. “it’s cost us about 45% of our business year to date, and we are down that much.”
Mathews then took us to the Variety Store, which is the only grocery store on the island.
Down on aisle four, we found owner Tommy Hutcherson. He blames fewer ferries for less foot traffic.
“It has impacted a lot of restaurants and a lot of smaller stores on the island,” Hutcherson said.
In the center of the village, we found Trudy Austin.
“The economic impact will be devastating this year,” Austin said.
Austin is the longest serving member on the Ocracoke Occupancy Tax Board.
“We are noticing a definite trend into a reduction of the money we take in every year due to the infrequent runs of the ferries,” Austin said.
That’s Chestnut’s point.
“We aren’t going to pay the state anywhere near the taxes we did last year,” Chestnut said. “I can tell you that.”
We also contacted Bryon Miller, owner of the Ocracoke Harbor Inn.
He has seen a slightly higher number for reservations, but he has noticed a reduction in foot traffic and spur of the moment reservations.
“Occupancy won’t tell the story at all,” Miller said. “We’ve had really no change, but I ‘ve had fewer customers every day. What is most important, waiting at the ferry dock creates a degraded experience. People are angry when they get here because they had to wait for the ferry.
“It is a lack of forward thinking on the part of government officials to properly fund the ferry so there would not be a diminished ferry schedule.”
But there is some good news.
Mathews took us to the walk on Ocracoke Express Ferry dock. It offers three trips each way, bringing up to 149-day trippers from Hatteras trip at $7.50 each way.
“You get on the public tram which is free,” Mathews said. “You can ride around. You can ride a golf cart right down the street. Ocracoke is a walking village.”
Here’s part of the problem.
Though North Carolina does have the second largest state-run ferry system in the country, it receives just 2% of state highway money.
This year’, that meant a ferry budget of about $58 million for a transportation budget that pushes $3 billion ($2,938,200,000).
In the 2020 study, Economic Contribution of North Carolina’s Ferry System, the ferry system generates $735 million in economic output, more than half of that -$414 million – coming from the Hatteras to Ocracoke ferry.
“It is very simple, you fund the demand, and the demand is there,” said State Sen. Bobby Hanig, who represents District 3, which covers a large area of northeastern North Carolina, including Currituck and Tyrrell counties, “and it’s clear we aren’t coming close to meeting the demand.”
He and likeminded legislators have failed to win the debate to allocate more funds to get more ferry runs from Hatteras to Ocracoke.
“It’s absolutely obscene what they have done to the Ferry Division,” Hanig said, “and what they have done to the people in Ocracoke, Hyde County and Hatteras.”
Hanig won’t identify “they” and he doesn’t like the word “failed.”
The record is clear, though, that the less funding philosophy is stronger than the more funding side.
“So, we had to do departure reductions to save on fuel costs which actually makes the largest savings for our ferry division,” said Catherine Peele, the planning and development manager for the North Carolina Ferry Division’s operations and finance, in a Zoom interview. “Next year when we get a budget by the General Assembly, we hope to have enough money and will revisit the departure schedule, depending on the amount that we are appropriated and can operate within.”
Those budget negotiations are ongoing among Gov. Roy Cooper, the House of Delegates and the state Senate.
As we pulled into the Hatteras Ferry dock at 2 p.m., we found a parking lot full of vehicles – different from the vehicles at 8 a.m., but there they are waiting for the next ferry.
Norfolk resident Frank Willis, who owns a home in Ocracoke, knows the issue firsthand.
“There is so much traffic you can’t get over there,” Willis said. “You wait here forever to get over. I think that’s why people don’t come over here.”
Assistant Director of Communications for the N.C. Department of Transportation, Jamie Kritzer, says that the Ferry Division has been doing all they can to get people to and from Ocracoke, including the addition of unscheduled departures during peak shuttle times.
Kritzer says NCDOT ran 132 unscheduled departures from Hatteras in April. 102 unscheduled departures were also made in May and there have been 114 so far in June.
The Ferry Division also wants to recommend steps travelers can take to avoid long lines, such as arriving early to the terminals or traveling later in the day.