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<body class='hmmessage'><div dir='ltr'> <BR> <BR>For such a common name, could not remember the <u>Jones</u> Act which would cause inflated labor rates so that not competitive. We took a Seattle-Alaska round trip cruise last year that included a five hour stop in Victoria B.C. to avoid the Jones Act provisions. <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR><br> <BR><div>> From: dwightlong@verizon.net<br>> To: pittsburgh-railways@mailman.dementix.org<br>> Date: Thu, 15 May 2014 11:57:19 -0400<br>> Subject: Re: [PRCo] Sometimes we get it right...<br>> <br>> <br>> John<br>> <br>> When cruise ship transatlantic crossings are on sale, they are much lower than that. Problem is that they are almost always expressed as “pp” for double occupancy. One has to double them to get the true cost if one is traveling alone—or find a roommate. <br>> <br>> The second problem is that they are one way cruises and to match them with a one way transatlantic air fare produces a killer of a cost—not really feasible for most folks.<br>> <br>> There are a few freighters on the transatlantic run that will take singles but the price is, from my limited exploration of what was out there a few months ago, higher than air fares especially if one has to fly one way.<br>> <br>> The reason that foreign flag cruise ships visit one foreign port on a cruise starting and ending in a US port is to comply with the cabotage provisions of the Jones Act, which prohibits non-US flag carriers from engaging in transport from one US port to another. In order not to disrupt international relations, foreign flag carriers were permitted to originate or terminate pax in the US—this exception was necessary to preclude other nations from banning US flag ships. It dates back to the days when steamships were the only means of intercontinental travel and is exploited today by the cruise ship industry, a result of the law of unintended consequences setting in. Even a cruise from a West Coast port to Alaska must include one (however brief) stop in Canada to be legal—unless of course it originates or terminates in Vancouver. The net result produces the consequence you describe, but it is actually the Jones Act that the carriers are circumventing not the Federal minimum wage law.<br>> <br>> Dwight<br>> <br>> From: John Swindler <br>> Sent: Thursday, 15 May, 2014 08:09<br>> To: Western PA Trolley discussion <br>> Subject: Re: [PRCo] Sometimes we get it right...<br>> <br>> <br>> New passenger ships are built every year, and some appear on occasional trans-Atlantic trips. Cunard's Queen Mary 2 offers sailings between Southampton and New York at prices that sometime dip under $1,000 per person. That's competitive with the airline rate.<br>> <br>> Cunard is now owned by Carnival. And there is probably a sign posted at the ship hiring office: "Americans not wanted". Fred's article says it all: our government wants to dictate labor rates, but a multinational company can look elsewhere. That's why cruise ships make sure they visit at least one foreign port on a cruise - to avoid US minimum wage rates. <br>> <br>> There's still steerage class on the trans-Atlantic route. Today it's called Economy class on an airline. <br>> <br>> <br>> <br>> <br>> > From: fwschneider@comcast.net<br>> > Date: Fri, 2 May 2014 17:36:54 -0400<br>> > To: pittsburgh-railways@mailman.dementix.org<br>> > Subject: [PRCo] Sometimes we get it right...<br>> > <br>> > <br>> > Sometimes, perhaps by accident or inertia, we get it right. While other countries were mistakenly building ships that would be empty only a dozen years later after Boeing introduced the 707 jet, we claimed we had no money….<br>> > <br>> > http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=GCsbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=6kwEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5121%2C3739461<br>> > <br>> > Oh well. We still have the SS United States sitting in a dock with dreamers thinking you can preserve a ship for tourist visitors. <br>> > <br>> > <br>> > <br>> > _______________________________________________<br>> > Pittsburgh-railways mailing list<br>> > Pittsburgh-railways@mailman.dementix.org<br>> > https://mailman.dementix.org/mailman/listinfo/pittsburgh-railways<br>> <br>> <br>> <br>> -------------- next part --------------<br>> An HTML attachment was scrubbed...<br>> URL: http://mailman.dementix.org/pipermail/pittsburgh-railways/attachments/20140515/70031271/attachment.html <br>> _______________________________________________<br>> Pittsburgh-railways mailing list<br>> Pittsburgh-railways@mailman.dementix.org<br>> https://mailman.dementix.org/mailman/listinfo/pittsburgh-railways<br>> <br>> <br>> <br>> -------------- next part --------------<br>> An HTML attachment was scrubbed...<br>> URL: http://mailman.dementix.org/pipermail/pittsburgh-railways/attachments/20140515/dd6d5358/attachment.html <br>> _______________________________________________<br>> Pittsburgh-railways mailing list<br>> Pittsburgh-railways@mailman.dementix.org<br>> https://mailman.dementix.org/mailman/listinfo/pittsburgh-railways<br></div> </div>
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