Editorial:
Fast ferries at what price? Surely not $7.50

Chronicle Herald, September 2, 2008

WOULD you pay $7.50 for a ferry ride from Bedford to downtown Halifax?
Never say "never." In fact, today might be the day you will seriously entertain the thought – especially if you spent far too much time on the Bedford Highway this morning staring at another commuter’s bumper and breathing his exhaust fumes.
Desperate times call for desperate measures and September gridlock has a way of fuelling desperation.

But when you’re in your right mind – that is to say, safely extracted from the bubble of your vehicle and the holding pen of traffic tie-ups – there’s no way you’d plunk down that kind of cash for a one-way ticket every day.

Certainly, that’s the instantaneous and unequivocal reader response we’ve been getting online in the wake of a story we ran last week. The Halifax Regional Municipality is conducting a market study over the next few days on the viability of a fast-ferry link between Mill Cove in Bedford and the downtown core. The $7.50 figure is at the upper end of the range of proposed fares, which could be set as low as $4.

Essentially, what planners want to know is if people are willing to pay at least twice as much for a high-speed ferry ride as they would for a bus ride. (A standard adult bus fare is now $2, and MetroLink, the recently introduced and wildly successful suburban express service, costs $2.50.)

That’s more than a $64,000 question; in the end, it’s a $27-million question. And the fast-ferry project should not be fast-tracked until we know the answer.

Those councillors, including Bedford’s own Tim Outhit, who want to proceed with caution and take a hard look at the project’s feasibility are right. While the city has earmarked $13 million in federal money towards the eventual purchase of two 250-passenger fast ferries, the business case is not a slam-dunk.

And quite frankly, many of the ferry skeptics make valid points. The "bang for your buck" argument is the most persuasive. For $27 million, critics say, the city would be bett er off expanding the Metro-Link service to more outlying areas. There is no doubt a b igger fleet of fast buses could deliver to the downtown more commuters from more parts of the municipality, at a lower price.

And there are logistical problems with the ferry project itself. The suitability of the parking at the proposed Bedford terminal at Mill Cove is raising concerns. Developing another parking lot nearby, linked to the ferry by shuttle bus, might entail too many steps for commuters to bother with.

Others have questioned how fast the fast ferry could reasonably go, since all watercraft must be mindful of their wake and operate in a safe manner in the harbour. Still, a top speed of 50 km/h is a whole lot better than the 20 km/h motorists might average in rush-hour traffic.

Ultimately, price and convenience will make or break the fast-ferry concept. It must be worth people’s money – i.e. cost significantly less than driving and parking downtown – and worth people’s time – i.e. cut down on their commute.

If you can get those basics right without resorting to subsidies or recovering the costs from other Metro Transit users – and that’s a big if – then a pair of fast ferries might be worth it for more intangible reasons.

There is no doubt they would add to the city’s cachet, give it a sleek, modern feel and open up a whole new realm of marketing opportunities.