City of Portland releases June traffic numbers for The Cat

Four days after Bay Ferries released average passenger counts for The Cat ferry since it started operating last month, the City of Portland has released hard numbers for June.

Last month 1,534 people arrived in Portland via the ferry from Yarmouth, while 2,082 people departed Portland to land in Nova Scotia. The city is paid $2 for every passenger coming and going up to the first 60,000 passengers.

During that same time 32 bicycles arrived and six departed (good for 50 cents each), 95 motorcycles arrived and 75 departed (at a buck a piece) and 511 passenger vehicles arrived, with 685 departing (that's worth $3 each).

There is a $5 fee for each passenger vehicle pulling a camper or utility trailer (12 arriving, 26 departing) and $20 for each tour bus (three departing).

That brings the total fees paid to the city for June to $11,259.

Slow start even by normal standards

The service started running on June 15, making for a condensed month, and American tourists typically don't start hitting the roads in force until after the July 4 holiday weekend, but even with those facts in mind one government official acknowledged the numbers are lower than hoped.

The province has said the contract it signed with Bay Ferries is structured to expect about 60,000 passengers. Should the service miss that target — and early indications are that it will be difficult to reach — there would be more fees paid to the company to offset losses.

By comparison, for the two years Nova Star Cruises operated the service it carried about 59,900 and 51,000 people, respectively. Direct comparisons are difficult, however, because Nova Star Cruises used a traditional cruise ship-style ferry and operated on a different schedule. 

The averages released by Bay Ferries showed an increasing trend in ridership into this month. Should that trend continue through the rest of July and into August and September, it could suggest the service is catching on and the slow start was on account of the lateness of getting a deal signed and marketing started.

Government committed long term

The government has said it is committed to the service and is viewing the relationship with Bay Ferries as a long-term project. The two signed what amounts to a 10-year deal in March. While tourism operators in Yarmouth County and along highways 101 and 103 have reported increases in business, the deal has not played well in other parts of the province and the Progress Conservatives have repeatedly hammered away on the agreement as being unfair.

On Thursday, Transportation Minister Geoff MacLellan said numbers for August and September would be key indicators of how things are going, but he remains unwilling to talk too much about passenger counts until the season wraps up at the end of September.