Trinidad and To­ba­go is set to lead the next phase of a pro­posed re­gion­al fer­ry ser­vice, with CARI­COM lead­ers agree­ing to ex­plore us­ing one of the coun­try’s ex­ist­ing ves­sels as a pi­lot project while a pri­vate sec­tor-led op­er­a­tion is de­vel­oped.

The ini­tia­tive, first ad­vanced in Jan­u­ary 2024 un­der for­mer Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley, has gained re­newed at­ten­tion as re­gion­al lead­ers look for ways to re­duce the cost of trans­port­ing goods and ease the im­pact of ris­ing prices across CARI­COM..

The is­sue resur­faced at the clos­ing news con­fer­ence of the Fifty-First Reg­u­lar Meet­ing of the Con­fer­ence of Heads of Gov­ern­ment of CARI­COM in Saint Lu­cia, where Bar­ba­dos Prime Min­is­ter Mia Mot­t­ley said Trinidad and To­ba­go’s ex­ist­ing fer­ry ca­pac­i­ty could be used as a tem­po­rary so­lu­tion.