Casco Bay Lines lands $6M grant to replace one of its aging ferries

Courtesy / Casco Bay Island Transit District Casco Bay Island Transit District will receive $6 million to replace one of its two ferries that has reached the end of its useful life. The district's board of directors is scheduled to vote on May 17 whether the first aging ferry to be replaced will be Machigonne II, bottom, or Maquoit II, top.

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By James McCarthy

Casco Bay Island Transit District will receive $6 million to replace a ferry that has reached the end of its useful life.

The grant was announced Thursday by U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, chairman of the Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee.

Hank Berg, general manager of Casco Bay Lines, told Mainebiz today that two of the ferry service’s five ferries are about 30 years old and ready to be replaced: Machigonne II, a 122-foot ferry with a capacity of 399 passengers and 12 vehicles, built in 1987; and Maquoit II, a 98-foot vessel with a capacity of 399 passengers and one vehicle, built in 1994.

Berg said the CBITD board of directors is scheduled to meet on May 17 to decide which vessel will be replaced first, using the $6 million grant.

“Both are at the end of their useful lives,” Berg said. “This funding is really important to us. We operate 365 days a year and we’re the lifeline to the people who live on the Casco Bay islands.”

Berg said Machigonne serves Peaks Island, while Maquoit serves all the other islands on the Casco Bay Lines’ service route.

Operating since 1981, CBITD provides year-round ferry service to six inhabited islands in Casco Bay. Berg said CBITD’s five ferries transported 1.1 million passengers, 35,000 vehicles, and 5,300 tons of freight in 2017. “We move a lot back and forth from those islands,” he said.

“This funding is crucial to ensuring the ferry system will be able to continue safe and reliable operations in Casco Bay for many years to come,” said Collins, who sent a letter with U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, last October to the Federal Transit Administration in support of CBITD’s grant application.

U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine District 1, added that the Casco Bay Lines’ ferries “not only give thousands of tourists a taste of what Maine islands have to offer, but are key to the sustainability of year-round island communities.”