The Cat ferry will be sailing into Yarmouth Harbour in a couple of weeks.
But the high-speed vessel won’t begin its sailing schedule on June 21 as planned.
Bay Ferries CEO Mark MacDonald tells Acadia News the delay is due to a combination of reasons which are tied to the rebuilding of the ferry terminal in Bar Harbour.
“It’s a complicated project and we always knew we were doing it on an accelerated time frame. But the construction and approvals processes, and the approval processes of course precedes construction, have stretched on longer than we have hoped.”
MacDonald says It is now anticipated that the earliest date on which any service could commence is in the mid-summer.
“But at this point we are only cancelling reservations until July 7th. We will be dealing with each customer individually and trying to arrange for alternate passage on Fundy Rose which is actually quite compatible in terms of scheduling with what our customers would would be doing going between Yarmouth and Bar Harbour.
MacDonald says the delay “won’t help” the company’s bottom line.
“We will be managing our costs as much as we can through what we’re calling the transitional period, but also respecting the fact we have to keep intact our key personnel team whether on shore on on the vessel.”
Acadia News asked MacDonald if the costs associated with the delay could force Bay Ferries to seek more money from the Nova Scotia Government…
“We’re assessing all of that, but by its nature, when something like this happens, it tends not to make things less expensive just because the service is not gaining revenue. But the service is also not expending as much. There’s a complicated financial equation that gets worked on and we’ll know the results of that as we go along. There’s not much more that can be said about that today, other than the fact that the province and everybody is paying close attention to it.”
A news release from Bay Ferries also contained the following information:
There are three general components to the construction program:
1. Marine-side work which comprises various repairs and updates to the offshore marine infrastructure and movement of the ferry ramp from Portland to Bar Harbor.
2. Interior renovations to the existing ferry terminal building for use by passengers and US Customs and Border Protection.
3. Renovation to the exterior land-side facilities.
The latter two components are where delays have occurred.
Remaining in Portland was not an option where a commitment was required to construct entirely new border facilities.
Bay Ferries Limited will communicate directly with all affected customers and deeply regrets any inconvenience caused to our customers and impacts on our partners and the hospitality industry
