As Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders prepare to launch a proof-of-concept trial for a new regional ferry service in the coming months, one prominent regional economist is laying out a clear roadmap to avoid the financial pitfalls that sank past regional transport initiatives.
Jeremy Stephen, an economist with dual experience as a pilot and aviation industry consultant, has thrown his support behind the ambitious intra-regional connectivity project — but only if planners prioritize cargo movement as the core revenue driver, with passenger service taking a secondary role. He argues that this cargo-centric framework is the only path to long-term financial sustainability for the initiative, which aims to cut exorbitant regional trade costs, ease inflationary pressures amplified by global fuel price volatility, and strengthen regional food security.
“It was very clear that there’s a momentum towards cargo, and from the time that happens, I support it,” Stephen told local outlet Barbados TODAY. “If it’s just driven on cargo, I think it’s way more manageable.”
To kickstart the project while private sector partners pursue long-term vessel acquisitions, CARICOM will deploy the Galleons Passage, a 74-meter roll-on/roll-off catamaran ferry owned by the government of Trinidad and Tobago. The vessel can accommodate up to 60 vehicles, 400 passengers, and holds substantial space for bulk freight. The initial trial route will link key markets across the southern and eastern Caribbean, connecting Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Suriname, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Barbados.
Stephen notes that informal commercial maritime traffic already flows regularly through these corridors, operating below the public radar through existing private merchant networks. “If you download the marine traffic app, you can see there’s traffic moving between Barbados and Saint Vincent every Wednesday for sure — massive shipments of stuff, including coconuts. A lot of people just don’t know this,” he explained. “The issue has always been that nobody has invested in large-scale infrastructure to handle consistent movement between Trinidad and Tobago, the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) and Barbados.”
To keep service affordable for small-scale traders and vulnerable communities without becoming a permanent drain on regional public finances, CARICOM leaders have tasked the CARICOM Private Sector Organisation (CPSO) and the CARICOM Secretariat with finalizing a detailed financial plan. Stephen says the project’s math only adds up if planners adopt a chain-link transshipment (or “ring topology”) model, rather than relying on simple point-to-point deliveries. “In other words, start in Grenada, pick up some spices, go to Saint Vincent, pick up some stuff, drop off a little bit of stuff, and then transship all the way through to say, Barbados,” he explained. “Only if there’s a transshipment model attached can it make money, especially if the vessels are young enough.”
Here Stephen raises a critical red flag, drawing a direct parallel to the 2020 collapse of regional carrier LIAT, which collapsed under unsustainable operating costs. He warns that vessel age and maintenance reliability pose the same existential threat to the ferry project. “The issue really comes down to age,” Stephen warned. “Outside of productivity, the issue with LIAT was the average age of the ATR aircraft they had at the time, the carrying costs, and the routes that were unprofitable. Those three components pretty much led to a situation where regional governments had to end up pulling from their pockets.”
The Galleons Passage, commissioned in 2018, is among a fleet of Trinidad and Tobago government-owned vessels infamous for extended maintenance downtime, Stephen says. “If the vessels are not young enough, it doesn’t matter, because it might spend more time down… and that might not necessarily assist the exercise in a meaningful manner. You also have to ensure the right health and regulatory concerns are baked into the model—you don’t want to be mixing certain spoilages with live chickens, for example.”
Even with a well-designed route and a reliable fleet, Stephen cautions that outdated, rigid port and customs bureaucracies across the region could still erase the ferry’s potential economic benefits. While Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley has called for urgent harmonization of regional customs, licensing, and insurance frameworks within three months, Stephen says the reform needs to go deeper to change entrenched operational cultures, particularly in Barbados.
“It makes no sense providing cheaper shipments if the ability to clear them still remains the same,” Stephen said. “The culture of customs, at least in Barbados, is one that fights certain reforms. The longer a ship waits just to offload due to issues pertaining to customs, it adds expenses you don’t want—port fees, docking fees, and all that nonsense. Those are the costs that end up eating into any headway or profit.”
He added that inflexible port operating hours, which prioritize rigid schedules over seamless trade flow, already deter international air carriers from routing heavy freight through Barbados, and the same flaw would harm the ferry project. “You can’t clear anything at the airport past four o’clock. Nobody likes to bring any cargo late. If you have rolling schedules both at the seaport and the airport, then this thing becomes a cheaper exercise. Customs reforms must help this to work.”
With Trinidad and Tobago providing its state-owned vessel for the free trial, Stephen questions whether the pilot will obscure the project’s true commercial risks, noting that Port of Spain has a long history of heavy subsidization for its domestic sea bridge and regional air links via state-owned Caribbean Airlines. To prevent historical political tensions from resurfacing, Stephen says all regional partners must contribute their fair share of costs.
Instead of wasting public funds on subsidizing daily operating costs, Stephen urges CARICOM governments to redirect public support toward structural upstream investments that will reduce long-term costs and shield the project from inflationary shocks. His top recommendation: bulk purchasing and centralized storage of maintenance parts, which are notoriously expensive to source in the Caribbean. “I think they should subsidise, to be honest, not operating costs, but a parts store,” he said. “Sourcing parts in the Caribbean is incredibly expensive. If you wait until the last minute, you pay an inflationary premium. If governments spend their subsidies on upfront parts acquisition and storage, and if they focus on subsidising the actual exports to incentivise traders, the region will see a far more meaningful return as economies pick up and trade revenues rise.”