Unless there is a dramatic intervention, it does not appear English Bay Launch, the company running the water taxi service that runs from Snug Cove to Granville Island and to Coal Harbour, will stay afloat past the next month and may be shut down before.
The owner and operator of English Bay Launch, Mike Shannon, told the Undercurrent on Tuesday, August 9 that it is not a question of if but when the service will shut down. However, Shannon said he is "not in a position to comment" further at this time and he declined to go into the details of all of the issues facing the operation.
Shannon did add that he's been keeping his regular riders updated and that right now EBL is running on a "week to week" basis. His other business, Old School Marine, based in Vancouver, has been, he said, keeping this one afloat and that cannot continue.
In a June Undercurrent story by reporter Susanne Martin, Shannon went on record as saying there are cost factors preventing him from breaking even, much less turning a profit. In that story he said that the company was "averaging 70 people a day for the two boats on the regular rides. But we need 100 passengers a day to break even."
