PORTLAND, Maine — Local officials operating a port in Ramsgate, England, have called the announcement of a new ferry line from its shores using the Nova Star — a ferry in its second season of daily runs between Portland and Yarmouth, Nova Scotia — “both inaccurate and misleading.”
Nova Star Cruises announced Tuesday that it has secured a winter route for its ship with Euroferries Express Ltd., a company led by the same person who has proposed a route between Boulogne, France, and Ramsgate, England, in the past.
Euroferries has not received approval to operate that route, according to a statement from the local Thanet District Council, and was found earlier to have falsely advertised fares for that service before it was operating.
A spokesperson for Euroferries Ltd. had not by Thursday responded to a request for comment sent Wednesday to its email address for media inquiries.
“Thanet District Council can confirm that there is no agreement with Euroferries Express Ltd. to facilitate a cross-channel ferry service between Ramsgate and Boulogne,” the statement from the council said. “Any statements to the contrary regarding the council-owned port are both inaccurate and misleading.”
The statement comes after denials from the council in late July that a ferry service to Ramsgate would start in the fall of 2015, according to the Thanet Gazette.
“Euroferries Ltd. approached Thanet District Council back in 2009. Euroferries Ltd. and Euroferries Express Ltd. share the same director,” the statement continued. “Since that time both companies have failed to substantiate that they could provide a viable cross-channel service.”
Dennis Bailey, a spokesman for Nova Star Cruises, said in an email that he could not clarify the confusion from the council’s statements.
“As far as we know, Euroferries is working with Ramsgate for the November route,” Bailey wrote.
Nova Star Cruises had issued the announcement of the deal on the same day that the lead transportation official in Nova Scotia raised concern about the service’s passenger numbers, which were about flat in July with its first year of operations.
Geoff MacLellan, the minister of tourism for the province of Nova Scotia, said the figures indicate the service is not likely to hit its passenger projections for the season and therefore is not likely to hit revenue expectations either.
The service has so far received $8.1 million of a $13 million subsidy from the province to operate this season, on the condition that it provides detailed monthly financial statements.
MacLellan said the company has not provided those statements since May 31 but has since requested $2.5 million more from the province, which has been denied.
“We’re not comfortable doing that until we have those audited financial statements,” MacLellan said.
The service has received about $41.5 million (Canadian) in subsidies from the province across the two seasons.
MacLellan said provincial officials are expected to issue a decision the week of Aug. 17 on whether Nova Scotia will continue helping Nova Star Cruises operate a ferry line to the province or seek the services of another operator.
MacLellan said that three parties other than Nova Star Cruises have approached the province with serious interest in taking over the service, but the province has not yet made any decisions or established how it would begin the procurement process for another ferry service.
The ferry service between Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, and Portland, Maine, has faced financial challenges since it formed as a partnership between the Maine-based Quest Navigation and ST Marine Ltd., the company in Singapore that built the ship.
Despite the two troubled seasons, MacLellan said a ferry service to the province is seen as having economic benefits for the tourism industry and that there remains a focus on getting that ferry trip to be financially sustainable.
The company was not able to secure a winter route after its first season and wintered the ship in a South Carolina port and in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.
The winter route again stands to pose a challenge for the Nova Star. If the prematurely announced Euroferries winter route does become reality for the company, it will have to make the run without subsidy support from the province.
MacLellan said the company presented the winter route plan with an expectation that it would still receive a lesser monthly subsidy, which had not previously been discussed.
“Us subsidizing a run in Europe is really a nonstarter, in any event,” MacLellan said.