“The City of Portland has had a long relationship with Yarmouth and I’m very disappointed to hear that there will not be passenger vehicle service between the ports this year (2010),” he said.
Mavodones believes the loss will affect local businesses as his region benefitted from visitors driving through Maine to travel to Nova Scotia and those traveling from Nova Scotia to visit and vacation in Maine. “It will certainly impact our restaurants, our shops, a lot of our local businesses and museums. I’m sure those in other communities will be negatively impacted also. It’s not quantified in front of me so I don’t know what the dollar figure is but I know it will have an impact on our local economy, our hotels,” he said.
When Mavodones was asked if he thought the Maine government would help subsidize the ferry service, he was skeptical. “I don’t know what the state, from a tourism perspective has done in that regard, given our own fiscal crisis that we have going on in the state of Maine, if it’s something that could even be considered at this time,” he said.
The Cat was the first vessel to run passengers through Portland’s new $20.5 million Ocean Gateway Terminal terminal last year.
The 16,000-square-foot complex is built on pilings over the harbor and includes two floors under a sharply pitched roof, punctured by two spires with horizontal arms to resemble the masts of a sailing ship. “It certainly was designed with Bay Ferries Cat in mind,” said Mavodones. “It’s a very nice terminal and I like to think fits well. The transfer bridge was designed and adapted to work with the configuration of the Cat. Our gangway system that gets people off the Cat into our customs area was also designed that way. Certainly the pier can accommodate other vessels but certainly the Cat operating out of Portland, hopefully for a long period of time, was something that was factored into that design and our lease with Bay Ferries.”
The Portland Press Herald reported that about 76,000 people traveled on the service this year, a 10 percent drop from 2008. In the late 1990s ridership was 100,000 to 150,000.
Chris Fogg, executive director for the Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce, says he was surprised and definitely saddened by the news that the Cat won’t be returning.
When asked if the loss would affect businesses in the Bar Harbor area, Fogg replied, “Absolutely.” “The Cat was a key contributor to our tourism economy in Bar Harbor and a lot of folks would come either up from Boston to stay the night and catch the Cat in the morning or folks would come from Nova Scotia and spend some time in our area. It’s definitely going to impact our tourism.”
Mavodones suspects there will be some type of action taken on the Maine side to resurrect the service. “My suspicion is between our state tourism office and our local convention visitor’s bureau and our efforts here locally to market the waterfront that we would be able to meet and talk with Mark MacDonald (president and chief executive officer, Bay Ferries Ltd.) and tourism officials up in Yarmouth to see if there is a way to try and get the service back underway running between the two ports. “It’s certainly going to have an impact in Bar Harbor and Portland on seasonal work.”
