SACO — A ferry service from Camp Ellis to the University of New England’s Biddeford campus carried commuters across the Saco River for the first time this morning.

The service will be offered for the next three weeks at no cost to determine whether there’s enough interest to support the program.

Additional Photos

The University of New England's ferry service between Camp Ellis in Saco and the UNE pier in Biddeford carries UNE faculty and media members on the inaugural Saco River crossing today. Photo by John Ewing/Staff Photographer

The ferry, which leaves from Bare Knee Point Kayak Rentals, will run weekdays in the morning from 7:30 to 9 and in the afternoon from 4 to 5:30.

Jeanne Hey, dean of the university’s College of Arts and Sciences, was one of the first passengers to take the five-minute commute.

Hey, who lives in Saco, said it takes her about a half an hour to drive to campus. Driving instead to Camp Ellis and taking the ferry shaves about 10 minutes off of her trip.

But it’s not just the time savings that makes the service attractive to Hey.

“Americans are so tied to their cars,” she said. “Taking the ferry involves a tiny bit of change in our schedule, but taking those gallons of burnt fuel out of the air is totally worth it.”

The program is part of the university’s mission to become carbon-neutral — a goal that UNE President Danielle Ripich pledged in 2008.

UNE’s Undergraduate Student Government provided $3,000 to fun the pilot program this spring.

Alethea Cariddi, the university’s sustainability coordinator, said it would take between 50 and 90 daily commuters for the service to run regularly.

If the interest is there, the program would be offered for 12 weeks of the school year — eight weeks in the fall and four weeks in the spring — and would likely be funded by the commuters, she said.

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