Ferry to Boston
 

Just heard this on CTV, Should have some articles about this tomorrow morning. Looks like there already shopping around for a ship. This comes after the CAT service from Yarmouth to Maine got canceled.

A ferry is needed, but The Cat lost money year after year, so I'm not sad to see it go. It would have been nice if they could have made it work, but...

this would be great, but would it make money or lose money?
and i think i may have seen a thread alredy on here about this, i might be mistaken though.

I think the key is to leave it up to private developers. If it makes money, great. If not, they can try something else until they figure out what the market can support.

I could see this ferry being more heavily used than Yarmouth-Bar Harbour because it is direct between two major population centres. An overnight trip on a cruise-like ship with sleeping cabins would be great. I'd probably pay more for a flight for that, whereas driving to Yarmouth is long and annoying.

Halifax-Boston ferry could become reality
 

Link could be operational by May or June, Karlsen says
By BRUCE ERSKINE Business Reporter
Wed. Jan 6 - 4:46 AM / Chronicle Herald


THE STARS are aligning to make a ferry service between Halifax and Boston a possibility by this spring.

"We have a couple of vessels on hold," Martin Karlsen, president of Karlsen Shipping Co. Ltd. in Halifax, said Tuesday in an interview.

"If it’s to be launched in May or June 2010, we’ll make a decision by mid-February."

Mr. Karlsen is the lead partner in American Ferries Inc., which was formed in 2001 by Johan Koppernaes, a retired Bedford engineer, and Alfred Howard of Boston to develop the service.

Mr. Karlsen, whose family business was founded in Norway in the 1800s and expanded to Canada in the 1940s, was brought on board to provide operational and financial expertise.

He said the concept makes sense, given the historic cultural and economic links between the two cities.

"It works elsewhere. Why can’t we do it here?"

Mr. Karlsen attributed the lack of a ferry between Halifax and Boston to technical limitations, now overcome, that wouldn’t allow a vessel of the type planned for the service to make the 700-kilometre trip overnight.

"Ships with the speeds required had not been available unless they cost a fortune," he said.

He said the combined population of Halifax and Boston have grown to the point where a ferry carrying an estimated 200,000 passengers annually is now viable.

Mr. Karlsen said ferry travel costs will be comparable to driving or flying. A couple with a car would pay about $450 for a one-way fare with cabin.

He said the project’s timing isn’t linked to the recent demise of the high-speed Cat ferry, which Bay Ferries operated between Yarmouth and Maine. The province has refused to subsidize that service.

"We have worked on this project for a long time. It’s a different destination altogether."

The Halifax-Boston service, which would include dining, entertainment and limited gambling and duty-free shopping, still faces some serious hurdles, Mr. Karlsen said.

Chief among them is securing a vessel that can operate year-round, travel at about 46 kilometres an hour and carry 1,300 passengers, 400 cars and 44 tractor-trailers or similar vehicles.

"We’d like to see an interested shipowner who might have a vessel available for lease or charter to see if the market is there or what modifications are needed," he said.

Mr. Karlsen suggested a suitable vessel with 350 bunk cabins, each capable of housing two to four people, would cost $20 million to $40 million.

A related issue is financing because the partners don’t plan to ask for government funding.

"It’s hard to start talking real financial requirements until we have a ship," he said.

The developers planned to use Karlsen Shipping’s wharf on the Halifax waterfront as their Nova Scotia terminal, but it was sold to the Defence Department in 2005 for $3.75 million.

Now based in Bayers Lake Business Park, Karlsen Shipping acts as a shipping agent and operates the MV Polar Star, which conducts Arctic and Antarctic expeditions.

The ferry partnership is talking to the Halifax Port Authority about a downtown docking site and has a tentative location secured in Boston, said Mr. Karlsen.

Authority spokeswoman Michele Peveril said port officials have met with the ferry group. She said discussions are at the concept level.

The developers also want to work with government and tourism agencies on marketing the service, which could include an educational component because the route crosses whale migration paths, said Mr. Karlsen.

Darlene Grant Fiander, president of the Tourism Industry Association of Nova Scotia, said a ferry between Halifax and the lucrative Boston market would be great for the industry and her organization would support it.

Tourism Department spokesperson Tina Thibeau said government officials aren’t aware of the ferry plan but would be open to discussing ways of using it to expand the area’s tourism potential.

did it say annualy as in once a year, thats a long ferry wait if its true:sly:

it says the service will carry 200,000 passengers annually, and I highly doubt the ferry will be quite that large ;)

ahaha, yeah, that makes more sense

I read somewheres else it would leave each city three times a week in the afternoon (arrive in the morning).

They should consider a docking location on the Dartmouth side, the waterfront is a lot less crowded than the Halifax side.

i can probably think of lots of areas in dartmouth that could be used but i dont know who owns what around the waterfront.
And besides existing infrastructure theres not really much on the halifax side either
but im sure they have most of this planned out anyway... or should.

I haven't heard anything on this in a very long time. Does anyone have anything or know of any meetings that may have taken place regarding this?

I really can't see this going ahead without the need for a huge subsidy. If the Yarmouth ferry couldn't do well; what makes them think they could get this one to do well either?

I've yet to see any numbers put forward. Plus the number of US citizens visiting Canada has been going down (from what I've seen on the National and in business new columns) because of the strength of the Canadian Dollar.

It's not just the dollar that's hurt tourism and other travel from the US. The new passport requirements haven't helped, either. The vast majority of Americans still don't have passports (According to the US State Dept., only a little over 100 million - or about 1/3 of the population - had passports as of the 2009 statistics. This is a high-end estimate, too, as it includes temporary passport cards, and youth passports which expire in less than 5 years. I haven't heard the statistics for Canada, but it's probably not much better).

This means that the casual cross-border trips and mini-vacations that we used to see a lot of are no longer practical.

Exactly - meanwhile for us, since the $ is higher we're willing to make the trip because it can be worth it.

I know at least 10 friends who got passports just to go to Vegas!

Yea, I know Canadians were going to the states more as the dollar was at parity or close to it, and Canadians were going down south of the border alot. But Americans were not coming up here as much.

Another thing I think would hurt is our higher taxes. Why would they come to Nova Scotia, when they can just go to New Brunswick and pay less for items they could get in NS. Nova Scotian's are going to NB to get gas, food etc. We should expect tourists to do the same. NB pretty much offers everything that NS has for less... Hell I'd even go to NB if I was a tourist.

Personally I don't think a ferry would work from Hali to Boston. Yes it would be from city to city... But there is just no demand as far as I can see. I don't hear the public screaming for a ferry to Boston, so I doubt one is needed. If a private company wants to do it, all the power to them. I just hope they don't expect to make a fortune out of it.

I honestly doubt that a whopping 2% less - and until a few months ago, it was the same, so wouldn't explain the dip last year - would have a huge affect on tourism. I'd even go so far as to bet that most tourists/travellers don't even take that into consideration. Overall costs, sure, but not the exact tax rate.

Anyway, I agree with the rest, I just don't see enough demand for the service.

Don't worry - I suspect the new PC government of NB will end up closing the tax gap in the end. They won't have a choice with their whoping defecit and balooning debt.

Now if Nova Scotia had the same level of debt; but it's current population - I'd say build the convention centre, build the stadium and do a bunch of things...but alas that's not possible. :)

This is still in the works.