The N.C. Department of Transportation is amending its ferry schedule during the Christmas holiday to save money.
    
A statement from the ferry division is running an amended schedule at its Cedar Island-Ocracoke, Swan Quarter-Ocracoke, Cherry Branch-Minnesott Beach, Southport-Fort Fisher and Currituck-Knotts Island routes from Dec. 24-26.
    
The Bayview-Aurora route will not run an amended schedule because of the need to provide service for workers at the PCS Phosphate plant. Also, the Hatteras-Ocracoke route will continue running its current abbreviated post-Hurricane Sandy schedule.
    
It's estimated that the abbreviated schedules will save the division an estimated $18,535 in fuel costs and $16,569 in labor. The statement said the decision to run an amended holiday schedule was based on previous years' traffic data.