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.
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