Ferry service:
Symi protests

The news (exclusively reported by SymiGreece on the 20th of January) regarding the decision by Blue Star ferry "Diagoras" to not include Symi in its new subsidised route from Pireaus to the "hard-to-reach" Dodekanese Islands have today been confirmed.

The Ministry of Mercantile Marine has decided to award "Diagoras" the contract for the subsidised route from Pireaus to the Dodekanese islands of Astypalea, Leros, Kalimnos, Kos, Nisiros, Tilos, Symi and Rhodes. However, because Diagoras is "too big" for Symi's harbour (according to Blue Star Ferries who operates Diagoras), Symi has been excluded from the route. According to the Ministry's decision, passengers for Symi will have to disembark in Rhodes where they will board a different boat to Symi which will leave Rhodes "no more than two hours after their arrival in Rhodes"! A similar arrangement will be in place for those wishing to travel from Symi to Pireaus. However, the Ministry can not yet confirm which boat will be used for tranfering passengers between Rhodes and Symi.

According to local newspaper reports, the news was met with angry reactions on Symi, with Symiots determined to "take action" if the island is to be left with no direct connection with Pireaus. In a statement to the Rhodes newspaper "Rodiaki" the Mayor of Symi, Mr Lefteris Papakalodoukas, said that "our harbour is 248 metres wide and Diagoras is 150 metres long" implying that the boat can get to Symi as originally planned (and promised by various Government Ministers). The Mayor also said that the island is enjoying a high level of publicity via magazines, newspapers and television thanks to the TV series "I Ioanna tis Kardias" which has resulted in a significant boost to the number of visitors coming to the island. Mr Papakalodoukas claims that if Symi were to lose the direct connection with Pireaus, the result would be a substantial loss of visitors coming here.

The new Diagoras route starts on the 4th of February and until then everyone on Symi is hoping for a last minute solution/agreement to enable Diagoras to stop at Symi even though such a prospect seems highly unlikely at this stage. As SymiGreece reported last week, Blue Star Ferries are neither ruling out nor confirming that either a different ferry or even Diagoras itself may start stopping at Symi during the summer months when there is high demand (and the weather permits).

According to "Rodiaki", people are preparing for an angry reaction in the event that no solution is found. Such a reaction could include (according to "Rodiaki") the symbolic burning of voting booklets (which used to be necessary for voting in an election, though not any more) or even the start of a regular service to Datca in Turkey using the boats of ANES (though what this would achieve is not clear).

Irrespecive of what happens with Diagoras, news from Turkey talk about a new direct daily service between Datca and Symi which will start in the summer and will be operated by a Turkish company with a 35 metres long passenger ferry. The plan is for the new ferry service to also be used for the export of products into the Symi market.