PORTLAND — Nova Scotia officials announced in early September that an agreement has been reached with the Maine company STM Quest Inc. to operate a cruise ferry between Yarmouth, Nova Scotia and Portland.
In a written statement, Economic and Rural Development and Tourism Minister Graham Steele said that Quest plans to put a cruise ferry in the water in May 2014.
According to Steele, Quest agreed to hire Nova Scotians and to purchase products and services from Nova Scotia businesses. He said the province will provide Quest with $21 million over a seven-year period with $10.5 million of that to be used for start-up costs and $1.5 million each year for marketing during that seven-year period.
“We are working to finalize the details of our joint venture, and we’re excited to start moving full steam ahead with our plans to re-establish the Yarmouth-Portland cruise ferry service in May of 2014,” said Mark Amundsen, president and CEO of Quest Navigation.
Amundsen will meet with officials from the Singapore company ST Marine in mid-September about possibly purchasing a 531-foot ship built to cross the English Channel between Le Havre, France and Portsmouth, England. The prospective buyer cancelled the purchase due to construction delays.
That vessel has 162 cabins and two restaurants with a capacity of 1,215 passengers. Quest’s first proposal (which was rejected by the province) stated it had exclusive rights to charter the vessel for five years, with the option to purchase it at that time.
There has been no ferry service between Maine and Nova Scotia since the CAT service was discontinued in 2009.
A recent study by the province showed that the number of people using the ferry plunged from 95,000 in 2002 to to 26,000 in 2009. The study attributed the decrease to factors such as rising fuel costs, the economic recession, the appreciation of the Canadian dollar and confusion regarding U.S. passport requirements between 2004 and 2009.
In Portland, the new ferry will dock at the Ocean Gateway terminal, built by the city in 2008 for $20.5 million. The terminal was to be a waiting area and customs screening site for passengers boarding and departing the former Scotia Prince. However, it was never used for that because the service was canceled before the new terminal opened.
The schedule for the new ferry service is expected to be similar to that of the Scotia Prince, operating between May 1 and Oct. 31, departing from Yarmouth daily at 9 a.m. and arriving in Portland at 5 p.m. The ferry would depart from Portland at 8 p.m. and arrive in Yarmouth at 7 a.m.
Portland City Manager Mark Rees said city officials are “very excited” about the decision to resume ferry service. He believes the ferry service will boost the local economy, though it’s difficult to quantify exactly how much because the city has grown since the service was discontinued.
The Ocean Gateway terminal may need to be modified, Rees said, but the basic structure is in place. The logistics of getting passengers on and off the ship will need to be worked out because other cruise ships transporting large numbers of passengers also dock there.
On the Nova Scotia end, the news was greeted as a economic victory.
The ferry study predicted that a healthy service to and from Maine would create 355 jobs generating $8 million in annual income across the province. It also predicted that if the number of passengers reached the same level as in 2002, $2.9 million in annual tourism spending would be seen in Yarmouth and $16.3 million a year throughout the province. The tourism industry in Yarmouth suffered a huge loss after the previous service ended.
“This is the news that we have been waiting for,” said Yarmouth Mayor Pam Mood in a prepared statement. “The feeling here in Yarmouth and throughout the province is one of both relief and excitement.”