Texada Island residents frustrated with a reduction in ferry service staged a protest on the Tachek Monday morning, February 13.
About 25 people converged at the Texada ferry terminal, delaying the loading of the vessel, then the unloading at Powell River.
BC Ferries has cancelled three daily round trips between Texada and Powell River. The regular vessel on the route, the North Island Princess, has been placed on the Powell River-Comox route while the Queen of Burnaby is in dry dock undergoing repairs. The normal backup vessel on the route, the Queen of Chilliwack, is undergoing a refit.
Because the North Island Princess can only carry about one quarter of the traffic of the Burnaby, there have been numerous overloads and many people left behind since February 7, the first day the small vessel sailed on the route.
BC Ferries decided to put the Tachek, the backup ferry on the Texada route, on the Powell River-Comox route for two round-trip sailings a day, in an effort to reduce the daily backlog. Water taxi service is available to Texada residents while the Tachek is on the Powell River-Comox route, but the schedule between Texada and Powell River has been reduced to seven round trips a day from 10.
“BC Ferries has no plan, they have no forward, future thinking,” said Dave Murphy, Powell River Regional District director for Texada Island, who participated in the protest. “They are in total disarray. They’re operating now in crisis management. When something breaks down, they frantically run around looking for some way to fix it.”
Adding to the frustration is a communications breakdown, Murphy added. “Half the people didn’t know there was a water taxi available,” he said. “Communications between BC Ferries and the community here is a shambles.”
Deborah Marshall, BC Ferries’ spokesperson, said the company accepts the criticism about lack of information. “We apologize for that,” she said. “We try to get it out through the media. I know we do service notices and what not, but we’re certainly taking that back. I know our terminal manager at Westview has been talking to customers about a phone tree and I believe some of that is happening.”
The company is hoping that everybody will work together and people will try to keep their patience, Marshall added. “By having the protest today, that made the Tachek 25 minutes late. That compounds through the rest of the day.”
The Tachek started the two round trips between Powell River and Comox on Monday, February 13. It leaves Powell River at 10:05 am and 6:05 pm. It leaves Comox at 11:50 am and 7:50 pm.
BC Ferries has also arranged flights between Powell River and Comox once a day, leaving in the morning from Powell River airport and departing from Comox airport in the late afternoon. Free shuttle serve from Comox airport is also available to destinations in the Comox Valley. Customers need to call 1.877.222.1949 to make flight reservations.
Marshall said they have transported 107 people on the flights. The only glitch occurred on Friday, February 10 when fog in Comox delayed the flight from Powell River. The plane finally left at noon and landed in Campbell River.
Meanwhile, the Queen of Burnaby went into dry dock on Saturday, Marshall said. “The propeller blades have been removed from the hub and they are removing the hub today,” she said on Monday, February 13. “They will start to work on the new hub tomorrow.”
Engineers believe there is binding in the hub. This means the propeller, which is a controllable pitch propeller that has five blades attached to it, doesn’t respond to pitch changes, Marshall said. “They’ll know for sure when they pull the hub off and open it up,” she said. “In the meantime, we have a spare, so in order to expedite the repairs, we’ll put the spare hub on, then we can go back and overhaul the hub they’ve just taken off today.”
While she won’t know for sure until Thursday, Marshall said engineers believe the Burnaby will be back in service on Sunday, February 19.
