After ongoing delays, heavy traffic and complaints from Sunshine Coasters, BC Ferries has announced it will be adding an additional early afternoon sailing to the Langdale-Horseshoe Bay route June 25 to 29 and July 2 to 6.
The added round-trip comes at a time when the ferry company also says it’s phasing out the 50 per cent passenger capacity limit.
In a service notice posted Tuesday, BC Ferries said it is adding a 12:20 p.m. departure from Langdale and a 1:20 p.m. sailing from Horseshoe Bay “to better match capacity with demand and meet customer needs.”
The schedule tweak came after BC Ferries released its summer schedules, which added a combined 120 additional sailings a week to the major routes, but left the Langdale schedule essentially unchanged.
Until Tuesday’s announcement, the only additional sailing on the summer schedule between July 2 and Aug. 3 was a 12:20 p.m. round-trip on Aug 1. The 12:20 p.m. sailing is also scheduled to run three days a week between Aug. 4 and Sept. 7.
BC Ferries said the additional sailings on the summer schedule are designed to exceed demand as British Columbians begin to travel more,” the company said in a June 22 release. “Ferry traffic is still down an average of about 50 per cent across the major routes compared to a drop from 80 per cent in April. The additional sailings mean capacity will exceed current summer demand by an average of 20 per cent.”
Ferries also said that while it will have more than enough capacity to meet traffic demand, “sailings at popular times may still be full,” recommending customers make reservations and travel at less busy times.
High traffic volumes on Sunday prompted BC Ferries to add an extra sailing out of Langdale at 12:20 p.m. There were also overloads for both walk-ons and vehicles reported.
At several points throughout the day Monday, the Queen of Surrey was running behind due to traffic volumes and berth congestion. By the final sailing of the day, the delay had hit 112 minutes.
There were also delays Tuesday.
Sunshine Coast Ferry Advisory Committee (FAC) chair Diana Mumford said that although traffic on the Langdale route is currently about 30 per cent below last year, it’s steadily increasing, and the original summer schedule announced this week had four to five fewer sailings a day than last year’s peak season schedule.
Mumford said the FAC, local governments and the Sechelt Chamber of Commerce have been raising concerns about the service on Route 3, and that all three FACs affected by changes on the Langdale run – Southern Sunshine Coast, Northern Sunshine Coast and Gambier/Keats – worked together to press for more sailings.
“We commend BCF for listening to our concerns, assessing the increasing traffic, and quite quickly making the adjustments desperately needed,” she told Coast Reporter. “We suspect that further changes will be needed on the route to ensure the service matches growing demand through the summer.”
The Transport Canada orders limiting ferries to 50 per cent of their usual passenger capacity remain in effect, but are expected to be repealed as of July 1 and replaced with a new order that will allow “essential passenger vessels” to operate as usual as long as mitigation measures are in place and local and provincial health orders are followed.
Deborah Marshall of BC Ferries said the company is already phasing out the capacity limit in consultation with Transport Canada and some weekend sailings on the Langdale-Horseshoe Bay route were loaded to more than 50 per cent.
“As the province starts to lift restrictions and British Columbians begin to resume travel, BC Ferries needs to be ready to accept the higher levels of traffic,” Marshall said in an email to Coast Reporter. “After carefully examining the business and implementing many new alternative practices, such as requiring customers to wear a face covering, the company is starting to phase out the 50 per cent passenger capacity limitation.”
Marshall said BC Ferries will also continue asking screening questions to passengers on sailings longer than 30 minutes and has installed Plexiglas barriers for crew and passengers and created seating plans for physical distancing.
The summer schedule will have three ships operating on the Tsawwassen-Swartz Bay run and two on the Horseshoe Bay-Departure Bay route.
The Tsawwassen-Duke Point route will continue with two-vessel operation.
BC Ferries said in the release that it believes it will be two to three years before traffic returns to pre-COVID levels.
