MV Saaremaa to start P.E.I.-N.S. crossings sometime next week, says Northumberland Ferries

Northumberland Ferries says the vessel that will temporarily take over MV Holiday Island's crossings between P.E.I. and Nova Scotia is on track to begin service sometime next week.

MV Saaremaa 1 has been docked in Caribou, N.S., over the last week while the company assessed the ship. The vessel was brought in from Trois-Rivières, Que., earlier this month as a replacement for the MV Holiday Island, which had a major fire in July.

Northumberland Ferries vice-president Don Cormier said the company has finished installing fenders on the ship that will ensure it aligns with its docking facilities in Wood Islands, P.E.I.

"We're still ongoing, doing some steelwork to modify the vessel's vehicle deck so that the transition is quite flat between ship and shore," Cormier said.

"We are going through a series of vessel certification and inspections for regulatory and statutory safety. And of course, our priority as always is safety. So our crew are going through very extensive training."

The company had to cut back the schedule of MV Confederation, the company's other ferry, to four round trips a day so crews could get the training.

"We recognize that's a big change in capacity" he said. "But again, our focus is to try to get this replacement vessel in service to restore more normal capacity to support Island economy and the movement of trucks and goods and people."

Meanwhile, he said the decision to move the Holiday Island from its Wood Islands berth is in the hands of the insurers. Cormier said the only impact on operations is that the Saaremaa will be homeported in Nova Scotia.

The Transportation Safety Board's investigation into the cause of the MV Holiday Island fire is still ongoing.