already looking at the possibility of buying two more.

Transport Minister Ewart Brown said the ferry service was in great demand and replacing the Sea Venture and Patience for the West End/Hamilton route might not be enough.

He said: "Surveys show the ferry service is overwhelmingly popular. We have to replace the Sea Venture and Patience soon as they will be out of commission but we might possibly get two more beyond that.'' He said teams from interested bidders were on the Island to test local conditions as both Government and private firms had made the mistake of ordering stuff which was unusable in Bermuda.

Dr. Brown explained: "It's a completely customised design concept. So we're making sure the design people look at the water and look at the docks. The successful bidder must look at our conditions. At the Airport they bought an accordion walkway to protect passengers but the parts rusted on it and they weren't able to use it because they didn't take into account local conditions.

"We want user-friendly ferries so it's easy to get on and off. They will have bigger areas for bikes.'' He said the $2.5 million ferries should be ready by April 2001.