Full Alderney ferry schedule set to resume at end of January

Alderney ferry service has been reduced to every 30 minutes, instead of every 15 minutes, due to ongoing mechanical repairs on one of the ships. 

Halifax Regional Municipality said Wednesday in a statement that service should return to normal by the end of January. This timing may vary depending on the delivery of required parts from an international supplier in Europe. 

The boat, the Vincent Coleman, experienced a steering issue last week and requires parts to be replaced.

The statement also mentioned that one of Halifax Transit’s five ferries, the Craig Blake, is undergoing a “significant repair” and will be out of commission until later this year. It is unclear how this will affect the ferry service. 

Dartmouth East-Burnside Coun. Tony Mancini said after Tuesday’s regional council meeting that delays like this can be “frustrating,” and can put “pressure on service and ridership.”

According to HRM’s transit ferry passenger counts, around 1,823,048 ferry rides were taken between Halifax and Alderney in 2025. Many people use the ferry as part of their daily commute.

Dartmouth Centre Coun. Sam Austin said that disruptions like this have happened before and are “a risk built into the service.”

“We could add another boat, but that comes with costs,” Austin told reporters after Tuesday’s regional council meeting. “It’s always that question of cost for the amount of risk that you’re mitigating.”

Austin said some of the imported pieces needed to repair the Vincent Coleman should be kept in Halifax. 

“Some of these pieces, maybe they need to be in a warehouse, available to be brought out when the unexpected happens,” said Austin. “That’s something that’s worth looking at and something that I can bring up through our fleet budgeting.”

Haligonians at the Halifax ferry terminal appeared unbothered by the increased wait time between ferries on Wednesday. 

Brian McIntosh has been taking the Halifax ferry to and from Dartmouth for around 60 years. He told The Signal that regular maintenance should be expected. 

“The thing people don’t seem to understand is that maintenance has to be done,” said McIntosh. “When you have a limited number of ferries, and one needs to be fixed, looked after, or maintained, then that’s going to reduce the service.”

“There are plenty of buses to take instead of a ferry,” said McIntosh. “Just because it’s a little bit inconvenient doesn’t mean that the world is falling apart.”

When asked how quickly he would like the ferry to return to normal service, McIntosh laughed. 

“It is every half hour. That’s not a bad thing,” said McIntosh. “I just missed the ferry, and I have to wait 20 minutes? Poor me, right?”

John Bermingham is also a frequent ferry user. He had not heard about the service reduction but said that he was okay with the temporary delay if “it’s just technical issues and if it just lasts for a short period of time.”

“Hopefully, it won’t be permanent. I wouldn’t like it too much if it were permanent, if I had to wait 30 minutes all the time instead of just 15.”

Bermingham told The Signal he hopes the city fixes the mechanical issues “as quickly as they can.”