The Alderney ferry is back down to half service after another vessel had to be taken out of operation due to steering issues.
Since the service has been at reduced service for five months now, Coun. Sam Austin proposed waiving fees for riders in June. However, his idea was ultimately voted down.
“You do these things when you need to build some goodwill, when a gesture is required. And to me, this was a moment that called for that,” said Austin, who represents District 5.
The Alderney route between Dartmouth and Halifax typically runs every 15 minutes on weekdays. It was first reduced to a 30-minute service in January after the Vincent Coleman had a mechanical issue with steering. Halifax Transit said it had to wait for proprietary parts to be shipped from Germany.
After a brief return to 15-minute service, the route encountered trouble again on May 22, after the Christopher Stannix also experienced steering issues.
Austin adds that this has had a negative impact on ridership.
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“When you drive someone out of transit and drive them into their car and they get used to making that trip and they buy parking where they’re going and they do these kinds of things, you don’t necessarily gain that rider back,” he told reporters.
But the CAO pointed out that if fees were to be waived throughout June, the total revenue lost would be $275,000.
Deputy Mayor Patty Cuttell also raised concerns about the fairness of only waiving ferry fees and not bus fares as well.
“So when a mom misses her bus home from work because it’s overloaded and it drives by her at the bus stop and she picks her kid up late from daycare and gets charged a fee for that — we are not subsidizing that,” she said.
Austin’s motion was voted down 3-11, but raised a wider discussion around the age and sustainability of the current ferry fleet of five vessels. One of those vessels — the Craig Blake — is out of service and isn’t expected to return until later this year because of “significant repairs” and scheduled inspections.
“I think we’ve pushed the limit of what they’re originally designed for. In an ideal world, I think, we would have a different type of design of a ferry,” said Coun. Tony Mancini, who represents District 6.
A ferry service review is coming to regional council on June 23, and Mayor Andy Fillmore expects more in-depth debate to come.
“We’re going to have to figure out (how) we can make a solid decision to improve service now that doesn’t necessarily have strained capital, in what’s going to become an obsolete style of service,” he said.
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