BC Bike Race (BCBR) will return to Powell River for its 10th year in 2019, and if it is anything like this year, passengers travelling to and from Powell River on BC Ferries can prepare for disruptions and delays.
On July 8, the sheer number of race participants and support staff caused problems on the Comox-Powell River route. Two days later, ferry service between Earls Cove and Saltery Bay was also affected.
BCBR organizers try to be as unobtrusive as possible while still delivering a bundle of people to Powell River for the race, according to co-founder Andreas Hestler.
“I know everyone won’t be happy and it does distress us to know that some people aren’t understanding or open to routine changes, but we know that will always be the case,” said Hestler. “We will continue to work toward a better way; it is one day a year and we do wish to be around for the long haul, so finding solutions is always our aim.”
BC Ferries issued a service notice on June 14 to give passengers a heads up that it expected July 8 to be a heavy travel day for the Comox-Powell River route, but Salish Orca did not overload, according to BC Ferries public affairs director Deborah Marshall.
“It’s my understanding from the terminal staff that the 3:25 pm sailing did not exceed the passenger licence capacity,” said Marshall in a statement. “The staff was able to count passengers on our TraCR system.”
Passenger and crew capacity is 600 people for Salish Orca. 625 participants from 40 different countries competed in the BC Bike Race Powell River stage, plus passengers in event support, sponsor vehicles and semi-trailer trucks. The majority of mountain bikers took the 3:25 pm ferry.
Andreas said the size of the event has not changed in the last five years; it has the same number of participants and staff.
“We split up over three ferries during the day and have moved off of the long weekend to avoid jamming up people’s holidays,” he said. “As well, we travel during the week.”
The mid-afternoon sailing out of Comox was close to 100 per cent full because of the race, which left regular passengers behind and waiting until the 7:10 pm sailing.
“We did receive some complaints from customers who experienced sailing waits,” said Marshall.
Only four foot passengers were allowed on the 3:25 pm departure out of Comox.
“While it is rare to have a sailing wait for foot passengers on our ships, it does happen from time to time,” said Marshall.
The ferry corporation gave no notice that the 3:25 pm sailing was full, unlike the regular updates it provides for major routes.
There were grumblings from passengers waiting in Comox that BC Ferries should have pulled in another vessel to handle the extra load the bike race brings, but Marshall said that was not an option.
“In the summertime, we do not have an extra vessel that we can redeploy to the route to provide more service,” she added. “We scheduled an extra sailing at the end of the operational day.”
That sailing left Little River at 10:20 pm.
On July 9, when the race left Saltery Bay for Earls Cove, where the riders began stage four to Sechelt, there was a service notice that Island Sky was 75 minutes behind schedule due to accommodating extra traffic associated with the race.
On all of its notices BC Ferries states, “We recommend that for timely sailing and departure information our customers also follow @BCFerries on Twitter.”
No information was posted on BC Ferries’ Twitter account informing passengers there were sailing waits at Little River Terminal on July 8 until 8:08 pm.
On July 9, the company issued a tweet that Island Sky was running 20 minutes late, then notices that it was 72 minutes and 51 minutes late.
