The company operating a luxury ferry between Portland, Maine, and Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, said it has landed winter work for its ship, the Nova Star.
After its first year of service, Nova Star Cruises wintered the ship in ports in the southeastern United States and in Nova Scotia as it sought work that could generate revenue during the offseason.
The company announced Tuesday that it will operate the ferry for three daily round trips between England and France, starting Nov. 1, in an agreement with Euroferries Express Ltd.
“This is the winter solution we’ve been looking for that will help make the route between Portland and Yarmouth more economically viable,” Mark Amundsen, the company’s president and CEO, said in a news release.
The service struggled through the first year, attracting about 59,000 passengers against an initial projection that it would carry 100,000 people between Nova Scotia and Maine. The company set its goal at 80,000 for this year’s shorter sailing season, which ends Oct. 13.
Amundsen said this year’s passenger counts have been on the rise and the new route brings the service “much closer to achieving the goal of managing Nova Star Cruises as a successful business operation.”
The service used all of a $28.5 million (Canadian) subsidy from the Nova Scotia government during its first year of operation. The initial subsidy was intended to support startup costs and marketing for seven years.
The province agreed to give the service another $13 million for the 2015 sailing season, of which it has used about $8.1 million. It last took $2 million from that allotment in June and did not take out any disbursement in July or so far this month, according to the provincial government.
The winter route contract comes just before provincial officials said they plan to make a decision on whether to continue with the Nova Star for 2016 or seek other operators for the ferry service. The Vanguard reported transportation minister Geoff MacLellan said last week that the province will make that decision around the middle of this month.
The province has sought further cooperation from officials in Maine, particularly with marketing the service throughout New England. Maine economic development officials traveled to Nova Scotia last week for a meeting to discuss what role each government might play in trying to boost traffic on the ferry line.