Michael Kaile works downtown but he lives in a place that is surrounded by gardens and trees. And he walks to work. At least he covers the land portion of his commute on foot. The rest of the trip is taken care of by English Bay Launch.
"I am lucky," he says. "I can just walk down [to the dock] in 20 minutes. Then 35 minutes on the water. At the other end, at Coal Harbour, it's an eight-minute-walk. I work right downtown, at Terminal City."
When he heard that Mike Shannon, co-owner and operator of the English Bay Launch, had plans to discontinue the service after the summer, Kaile got together with a group of like-minded commuters. He said the service "is invaluable. I am actually surprised that there aren't more people using it."
Ridership is one of the difficulties that Shannon is grappling with. "We are competing against BC Ferries and we have a hard time filling the boat," he says. "It is okay in the afternoon but I think that quite a few people are carpooling to work and then returning with us. We have a 10-pack of tickets that reduces the rates. But that doesn't work if we're running empty in the morning or with only two to three passengers. The problem is that we're not subsidized like BC Ferries. We are averaging 70 people a day for the two boats on the regular rides. But we need 100 passengers a day to break even."
Shannon has looked into applying for a subsidy from the provincial government but was told that he will only be eligible after two years in operation. He will reach that milestone in November. "My experience with bureaucracy is that it takes a lot of time and a lot of patience. And my patience is starting to wear thin."
The number or passengers is not the only issue that keeps English Bay Launch from making a profit. There are rising fuel prices, the weather, the winter and the cost of keeping the vessels sea-worthy. "I have to bite my tongue when people complain about prices. They don't realize that repairs are so expensive. We spend a lot of money but the price point is wrong and the ridership is too low.
"We told [the commuters] that we would shut down in September. They want us to keep running. They even told us to raise prices. Nearly all of the people at the meeting said they were fine with this. Fuel prices have gone up. If we added $2 per trip, that would only cover the fuel bill. We are planning to run the business through the summer to have a chance to recoup some of what we lost."
The recent meeting was attended by 30 of the 40 or 50 regular commuters who were interested in exploring options of helping English Bay Launch succeed. Kaile says, "We realize that it is tough because there are a lot of expenses. We appreciate the difficulties of keeping it going. We have a lot of loyal fans here and hopefully this will become a way of life. It gets people off the road and that was one of the objectives for many of us. So there we go. We're rather proud of it and we will work very hard to keep it going."
