Casco Bay Lines to expand ferry service 'down bay'

Courtesy / Casco Bay Lines Casco Bay Lines, which operates the Aucocisco III and four other ferries, will soon implement its first major schedule change in over 50 years.

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By Staff

Casco Bay Lines, the quasi-municipal ferry service that shuttles between Portland and seven nearby islands, is expanding its trips to six of them.

Beginning Feb. 29, the ferries will run on a new schedule with additional service to the “down bay” islands: Bailey, Chebeague, Cliff, Great Diamond, Little Diamond and Long.

For some of them, the change is significant. One example: Ferries currently depart Great Diamond and Little Diamond islands six times a day, Monday through Thursday. Under the revised scheduling system, there will be 10 departures, with the last trip of the day leaving Little Diamond at 10:25 p.m., nearly three hours later than currently.

The new schedules are the result of an analysis, begun in 2017, that looked at ways of increasing efficiency while meeting new customer demands. Casco Bay Lines carries over 1 million passengers annually, and the rescheduling is the first overhaul of the lines’ itinerary in “well over 50 years,” according to the CBL website.

“During that time, Casco Bay Lines made schedule changes in an ad hoc fashion in response to isolated requests. Over the years, the system grew increasingly inefficient,” a Jan. 18 post on the website reads.

The Casco Bay Island Transit District, the state agency that operates the ferry service, worked with a Seattle-based consulting firm, KPFF, to develop recommendations for the new system of departures and arrivals.

Based on input from passenger surveys and public meetings, as well as a study of current schedules and expected demand, the firm released its findings in March 2019. After additional public meetings, the transit district’s board tweaked the draft schedules and approved them in December for a two-year pilot.

Casco Bay Lines said it plans no fare increases as a result of the new schedules.