Earlier this week, BC Ferries released its year-end results for fiscal 2012, reporting a net loss of $16.5 million for the year, compared to net earnings of $3.8 million the previous year.
Revenues for the year decreased from $739.3 million to $738.2 million, while operating expenses increased from $672.2 million to $682.7 million. Representatives of coastal ferry users attribute this, in part, to rising fares. Councillor and member of the Bowen Island Municipal Ferry Advisory Committee Alison Morse said, "Ferry cost clearly has an impact. This came across loud and clear in the ferry survey. It impacts people's travel patterns." The findings of the ferry review have prompted BC Ferries to think about cost containment, for instance through cost cutting measures and service changes, according to Morse. In the year ending on March 31, vehicle and passenger traffic declined by 3.5 per cent and 2.8 per cent, respectively. That makes it the lowest vehicle traffic for BC Ferries in 13 years and the lowest passenger traffic in 21 years.
Yet route eight, from Horseshoe Bay to Snug Cove and back, is an anomaly. "Bowen Island has experienced a significant drop in traffic in the past but in the last two years, it's leveled off," Morse said. While the percentages comparing the last two years have a negative in front of the numbers on almost all routes, route eight shows slight increases in vehicle as well as foot passenger traffic. Morse thinks that this may partly be due to the commuters. "We've got a high number of riders who don't have a choice, they have to take the ferry to go to work," she said, adding that she learned that an average of about 80 per cent of cars on the ferry make use of the experience card.
BC Ferries is currently forecasting a small loss for 2013, largely driven by lower traffic levels but the company expects to return to profitability in fiscal 2014. "I think their premise is that there will not be any further detoriation in numbers," Morse said. "The jury is still out whether the traffic on all routes will stabilize or not."
Morse added that the Bowen Island run has one of the highest capacity utilizations of the minor routes. "It will be interesting to see what's going to happen over the next few months. BC Ferries is talking to the province right now and we won't know until September what the price cap will be," she said, adding that the changes in the Coastal Ferry Act that determined that the price cap could be for the whole system and not differentiate between major and minor routes was a step in the right direction.
