The shake-up in the cruise ship world created by the wholesale arrival of Panamax ships to Bermuda could bring the spin-off benefit of a fast ferry operating from early morning to late evening between St. George's and Hamilton allowing commuters to leave their cars and bikes at home.

And there is talk of an "iconic" bridge one day superseding the Causeway as the main road link to St. George's.

Add to that the ongoing question of whether the Town Cut needs to be enlarged to allow giant Panamax cruise ships passage to the town's harbour and what is to become of the former Club Med resort and it is clear to see just how many issues are currently taxing the mind of Mayor E. Michael Jones as he looks to 2006 and beyond for the direction of the town.

No wonder he is keen that the people of the St. George's help him sift through the options and settle on a plan for the future.

On Friday, the Mayor called a snap election for January 26, because of the number of issues facing St. George's in the immediate future. Mr. Jones said it was in the best interest of the town to call an election before things start to roll in 2006.

At the beginning of December, through , he revealed a blueprint of ideas to form a basis for discussions on the future direction of the town.

Before the end of 2005 he hoped to have been in a position to hold a public meeting to reveal the findings of a computer simulation on whether Panamax cruise ships will be able to navigate Town Cut and, if not, how much of the reef would need to be cut back to allow the giant ships to reach the harbour.

But the computer results are unlikely to be available until sometime in this month, and with news on proposals to redevelop the Club Med resort into a Four Seasons Hotel expected in March, Mr. Jones is now aiming for a public discussion in the early Spring.

In an endeavour to keep the community informed in the meantime, Mr. Jones has spoken at length to about his current thoughts and the town's options as he sees them.

In the first part of our interview he concentrates on the question of the Panamax ships and their likely impact on the Town Cut.

As reported in last week, Mr. Jones would like to see St. George's become a trendier place for people to come and visit, have fun, shop and relax at a waterfront restaurant or bar.

Currently the town is visited throughout the summer season by two 'niche' cruise ships that berth at Ordnance Island and Pennos Wharf, blocking out much of the impressive harbour vista.

As these niche ships are replaced in the coming years by new giant-size Panamax cruisers, the likelihood is that Ordnance Island will be freed up, possibly to accommodate the occasional passing small cruise ship or to be redeveloped as a central visitor attraction and marina for luxury yachts.

The town will only host one Panamax cruise ship at a time and that will be at Penno's Wharf. But even the 'one ship only' scenario depends on the answer to the Town Cut question.

Having seen the effect of Hurricane Fabian's storm surge through the present Town Cut in 2003, which caused flooding of the main square and surrounding properties, the importance of computer simulations to predict how much greater the damage might be if the harbour entrance is enlarged cannot be overstated.

"Whether we like it or not we are going to have Panamax vessels," said Mr. Jones. The 900ft-long ships already visit Dockyard and even if they ultimately don't reach St. George's harbour their passengers will, be it by fast ferry, land transport or a number of other docking options close to St. George's town.

Once computer simulations are released, Mr. Jones said: "The Corporation can go to the St. George's community and say 'folks it needs to be widened by 100 feet or 75 feet or 150 feet ? we don't know ? and would they like to see it widened by that much or widened at all?'.

"You also have a situation if you widened the Town Cut and take out say 100 feet of reefs you also have to take out 100 feet of reefs outside the Town Cut because the ship has to come in.

"All that has to be brought to our attention and then we will go to the people and say 'Here are the facts, now what would you like us to do?'.

"Once Town Cut is widened you can't go back and glue it back in 25 years' time. And what happens if in 20 years time the Panamax ships are bigger?

"Are we going to go through the same scenario in which the cruise ship principals say the Panamax ship is now 200 feet longer and we will need to widen the Town Cut again?"

Although much larger than the two cruise ships that currently visit the town, a single Panamax ship would bring less people to the town.

According to Mr. Jones the two smaller ships bring a total of 3,200 passengers compared to the average for a Panamax of 2,500, allaying the fears of some that the time might be swamped by cruise ship visitors.

Mr. Jones praised Tourism Minister Ewart Brown for creating the Waterfront Taskforce, which has brought together the Corporations of Hamilton and St. George's and Wedco to work as a team deciding the Island's future cruise ship options.

He said: "One of the things we have to look at, as options, is do we need to have a cruise ship in St. George's, one in Hamilton and two in Dockyard?

"Most island countries don't have three ports in such close proximity and the infrastructure it needs is quite substantial.

"So one of the things we are discussing is, if we can't get one of the Panamax ships into St. George's, does Dockyard become the cruise port and we simply transport people around by bus, bike, taxi and the fast ferries?

"The Minister has already indicated he anticipates a fast ferry for St. George's larger than all the others, carrying up to 300 passengers coming to St. George's on a regular basis.

"It's our hope that, in order for the ferry to be effective for the local commuter, it should leave here around 7 a.m. so that if someone needs to be in their office in Hamilton early they can be there. Otherwise many people will still just take their car to Hamilton.

"The ferry needs to be something that continues to operate late in the summer perhaps up to nine or 10 p.m. It needs to be something that is not just for visitors."

Returning to the options for Town Cut, Mr. Jones mentioned a possible giant roller system that would allow the ship to 'bounce along' as it navigated the straight, or possibly a pulley system to guide the ship through.

Other options might be anchoring a Panamax outside the harbour and using tender boats to ferry passengers in, or even creating a dock on the northern side by Tobacco Bay or Ferry Reach and then busing people to St. George's.

"There has also been a suggestion of doing some work at Ferry Reach allowing the ship to come down Kindley Field Road by taking out the bridges and putting in a tunnel," he said.

In tomorrow's, Mr. Jones talks about options for a new bridge to supersede the Causeway, and the livelier feel he'd like to see for St. George's linked to the proposed redevelopment of the former Club Med resort into a Four Seasons hotel.