The visit of three representatives of BC Ferries to Bowen Island Jan. 15 led to a useful discussion of ways to improve the experience of Islanders using the service.
Mark Collins (vice president of strategic planning and community engagement), Darin Guenette (manager of public affairs) and Chris Morris (manager of the Horseshoe Bay terminal) met with the mayor, councilors and members of the Transportation and Ferry Advisory committees (BIMTAC and FAC).
We toured the Snug Cove Terminal, discussing pragmatic measures and strategic issues that could improve the experience of Bowen Islanders using the ferry service.
The ferries representatives immediately understood the need to improve the design and facilities at the terminal, including reconfiguring the area extending from the washrooms down past the Plexiglas shelter.
We learned that BC Ferries has a standard heated waiting room complete with washrooms that would be ideal for installation there.
They agreed that the sidewalk could be leveled making it more usable for strollers and wheelchairs.
BC Ferries has 47 terminals. We are now waiting to find out how high Snug Cove terminal is on their capital plan upgrades list. The FAC will continue to push for improvements. There will be plenty of consultation with the community during the three-year period the process will take once it’s initiated. Issues such as moving the light standards and leveling pavement might be dealt with more quickly as maintenance items.
We brought up scheduling issues, especially relating to the reduction in weekend morning services, which have affected young families and shift workers particularly badly. BC Ferries is now waiting to receive our input on desired changes and we are currently designing a community survey to capture the views of ferry users.
We expressed concern about the likely rise in sea levels due to climate change and heard that all work on terminals now provides for a one-metre sea level rise.
We asked about the planned redevelopment of the Horseshoe Bay terminal and requested the chance to offer input.
The capital plan will be drawn up during the next four years and we were reassured that there will be formal consultation of communities affected via the FAC.
BC Ferries plans to move to an all-reservation system for major routes (Bowen is considered a minor route) to reduce the marshalling area required at Horseshoe Bay. This, along with the newer ferries that can load entirely from one level, may make obsolete the upper layer of the terminal where Langdale traffic marshalls, which currently does not meet seismic safety standards.
One concern of BIMTAC is that there is too little communication between BC Ferries and other transportation agencies, TransLink in particular. We were heartened to hear that a meeting between the two is now planned. We urged greater consultation with Metro Vancouver as well as West Vancouver.
While discussing recent service disruptions, Guenette reminded us that there is a BC Ferries Twitter feed (@bcferries) and that commuters can sign up for email service notifications (go to bcferries.com, click “Manage My Account,” then sign in or create an account to subscribe to email notices).
We asked BC Ferries to consider greater use of water taxis in general. Collins emphasized that, contrary to common belief, BC Ferries likes and welcomes foot passengers.
He also noted that our current ferry is licensed to carry about 400 passengers. If the need arose, the ferry could be certified to carry about 600.
Although the Cardena Road drop-off area is beyond BC Ferries’ purview, Collins offered the assistance of their engineering department to help us design a safer configuration.
Finally, an intriguing idea: Could BC Ferries devise a customer loyalty program to reward frequent users? The software is not yet able to handle such a program, but we think that might be a target.
Susanna Braund is the chairwoman of the Ferry Advisory Committee.
