GUARDA­IAN ME­DIA NEWS­ROOM

The new pho­to iden­ti­fi­ca­tion re­quire­ment to trav­el on the wa­ter taxi is re­ceiv­ing mixed re­views by those us­ing the ser­vice.

When Guardian Me­dia spoke re­cent­ly with sev­er­al pas­sen­gers at the San Fer­nan­do Ter­mi­nal, a few of them were still un­aware they need­ed an of­fi­cial form of ID to trav­el.

The new pro­to­col was an­nounced by NID­CO last Fri­day, Au­gust 30th.

One per­son we spoke with, who has been trav­el­ling on the wa­ter taxi since 2009, said she isn't hap­py with the new reg­u­la­tion, and called it an in­con­ve­nience.

“It’s cum­ber­some. It makes the board­ing process a lit­tle longer,” pas­sen­ger Louise Poy Wing told Guardian Me­dia.  “Since the in­cep­tion of the Wa­ter Taxi Ser­vice, we haven't had to do that.  But it’s be­cause of the reg­u­la­tions.  It’s not re­al­ly the Wa­ter Taxi Ser­vice it­self, and it’s not NID­CO, but Marime Ser­vices [en­forc­ing this re­quire­ment].”

But an­oth­er pas­sen­ger, Bet­sy Samai-Ram­s­ingh, gave the sys­tem a thumbs up, be­cause she be­lieves it will ben­e­fit pas­sen­gers.

“I think it is for in­sur­ance pur­pos­es,” she said. “So, it’s a prac­tice that’s for our safe­ty, and even­tu­al­ly it could work out for our ben­e­fit.”

The new mea­sure re­quires peo­ple 16 years and over, to present a valid gov­ern­ment-is­sued pho­to ID—such as a dri­ver’s per­mit, na­tion­al ID card, or pass­port—to board the ves­sel.