Our Ferry Ridership Looking Good This Year

N.B.-N.S ferry's spike in riders fuels hopes
Last Updated: Saturday, August 28, 2010 | 2:03 PM AT
CBC News
The Princess of Acadia ferry docks in Saint John, N.B. Supporters hope an increase in passengers this year will convince governments to back the survival of the crossing. (CBC)Defenders of the subsidized ferry service that connects New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are hoping a spike in passenger traffic this summer will help save it.

Last week Bay Ferries Ltd. announced that the Princess of Acadia will add three extra crossings weekly between Saint John, N.B., and Digby, N.S.

There has been a 25 per cent jump in passenger numbers this summer, the company says.

The future of the service is in the hands of the federal and provincial governments. They have promised the crossing will stay open until the end of 2011, with a decision on what happens to the ferry service beyond that coming next fall.

In 2008, the New Brunswick and Nova Scotia governments paid $2 million each to help with Bay Ferries' operating costs, while the federal government put in $11.1 million.

Firm ongoing funding and a replacement for the federally owned, 1970s-era Princess of Acadia would likely be required to keep the crossing going.

The ferry business is especially important to the small town of Digby, which residents say would experience a huge drop in traffic if the ferry ever shut down.

Ferry vital to fish-packing
Jim Thurber, who heads a coalition in southwest Nova Scotia that is trying to save the ferry, said the strong summer shows that the ridership is there. He says the passenger numbers can be combined with a recent study by the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency that said the ferry service is critical to the region's fish-packing industry.

"It should help in selling the fact that that service needs to remain and be guaranteed long-term," he said.

Stakeholders attribute the increase in passengers to the cancellation in December of the high-speed catamaran ferry that ran between Bar Harbor, Me., and Yarmouth, N.S. That crossing was also subsidized, and when Nova Scotia pulled its funding the crossing was cancelled.

Bay Ferries operated both vessels. People who look for the Bar Harbor crossing online are automatically forwarded to the Digby Ferry.

Digby-based restaurant owner Chris Cogswell said he has noticed the difference this summer.

"It's always been going downhill a bit for the last four years and this year it's actually coming back up the other way, so definitely the ferry traffic is helping for sure," he said.