The Nova Star ferry between Portland and Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, will make its last trip three weeks ahead of schedule. Service got off to a slow start this season, the first for the Nova Star, after five years without a ferry between Maine and Atlantic Canada. Business has since picked up, with more than 20,000 passengers riding the ferry in August. But Nova Star wants to work on plans to attract more passengers in 2015.
The previous two boats that ran between Yarmouth and Portland, the Cat and the Scotia Prince, typically made their last trips of the season right around Columbus Day. Business on the Nova Star finally began to pick up a bit late in the summer, and the ferry had been scheduled to run through Nov. 2. But as he took a look at upcoming bookings, Marc Amundsen decided to change course. Amundsen is the CEO of Nova Star Cruises.
"What we saw is, after the Columbus Day weekend, a significant dropoff in passenger count," he says. "And we chose, from an economic point of view, to stop the service at that point."
The Nova Star is now scheduled to make its last trip from Portland to Yarmouth the night of Monday, Oct. 13. Six-hundred-and-fifty passengers had purchased tickets to ride the ferry after that date. Nova Star Cruises is offering them a full refund and free reservation for the remainder of this season, or 50 percent off a trip 2015.
The early end to the service will bring to a close an up-and-down first year for the Nova Star. Amundsen says he's not surprised at how things have gone. "You know, there hasn't been a ferry service in four to five years there," he says. "We had to get the word out there that there is a ferry service back. It's going to take a couple years to get the service back to where it was" - and very likely, even more up-front, financial investment.
"Pretty well the history of ferries, running between Nova Scotia and Maine, has been Nova Scotia contributing a lot and Maime saying, 'We can take it or leave it,' " says
Michael Gorman, who covers provincial politics for the The Chronicle Herald newspaper in Halifax.
This year's underwhelming, early-season numbers forced Nova Star to use the full $21 million subsidy it received to restart service from the goverment in Nova Scotia. That money was supposed to be parceled out over seven years. The Finance Authority of Maine also entered into preliminary talks with officials at Nova Star Cruises about ways the state could help the company secure a $5 million line of credit.
"That's not happened yet," Gorman says. "So the province had to step up and do that. That money came from the subsidy - the $21 million. I think there is growing resentment towards that."
Maine Gov. Paul LePage, notes Gorman, also pledged marketing and financial assistance last year to the company that become Nova Star Cruises. In August, the province's top tourism official told The Chronicle Herald that he was trying to get a meeting with LePage to discuss the issue.
Neither the Finace Authority of Maine nor the governor's office responded to requests for comment on this story by airtime. Marc Amundsen, Nova Star's CEO, says he's has had positive discussions with officials in Maine, as he plans for the 2015 season.
