With the looming mid-life upgrade for the Queen of Capilano ferry, at least one group of locals are brainstorming ways to make the four-month period without it less painful.
On Monday night, the Economic Development Committee asked council for two things as a means to deal with the Queen of Capilano, which is being upgraded and temporarily replaced with the smaller Bowen Queen from January to April 2015.
The committee asked council to write a letter to B.C. Ferries requesting a financial contribution towards a $75,000 branding initiative since it’s partially responsible for the challenges facing the community during those four months. Council agreed to send the letter.
BC Ferries is conducting the mid-life upgrade to the Queen of Capilano at a cost of $12 million. The project includes extensive upgrades, refurbishment or replacement of various systems and components on the vessel, according to Corrine Storey, vice-president of customer services with BC Ferries.
The goal is to add another 20 years of life to the Queen of Capilano.
“This significant maintenance project will produce a number of benefits for customers, with the two most notable being the addition of gallery decks (adding space for approximately 17 more vehicles) and direct access to the lounge area for foot passengers boarding and disembarking at Horseshoe Bay,” Storey said in an email to the Undercurrent.
Gordon Ganong, chairman of the Economic Development Committee told the Undercurrent before the meeting the request also addresses the need for clear signage that includes Bowen
Island on the Upper Levels highway in West Vancouver.
“In essence, to be able to do the branding properly, we really do need a branding expert facilitator,” he said. “We’ve got great volunteers here and we’ll do what work we can, but we really do need some facilitators.”
The committee is looking high and low for funding, Ganong added.
“The municipality’s budget is fully filled with looking after infrastructure, looking after water and sewer and waste management and those kinds of things that we’re not in a position to be able to start writing cheques for branding,” he said.
The second idea is solving ferry marshalling in Lower Cove by asking the municipality to consider disallowing parking on weekdays from 5 to 10 a.m. on the south side of Trunk Road.
Council referred the idea, brought up by Coun. Tim Rhodes, to the Transportation Advisory Committee.
“This proposal of just temporarily having no parking from 5 to 10 in the morning would help alleviate or mitigate some of the safety issues that we would have,” Ganong said.
“The businesses that are open at that time, primarily coffee shops that are there in Snug Cove, they would welcome this because they’d have folks who are parked right in front of their establishments, get their coffee, get their biscuit, maybe have breakfast while they’re (waiting for) their ferry.”
The overload traffic that extends into the school zone could be avoided by implementing the temporary change while the larger ferry is getting changed.
“So those overloads that we have typically happen Monday to Friday in the mornings,” Ganong said. “I don’t think I need to fill in the blanks here for the concern in regards to the school and to the children.”
The Bowen Queen only allows space for 70 vehicles, 15 less than the Queen of Capilano.
While Storey recognized the lower capacity leads to more vehicle overloads than usual, she said they’re working with Bowen Island’s Ferry Advisory Committee to mitigate the issue.
“The plan is to implement services that will make it convenient and efficient for customers who would normally take a vehicle on the ferry to leave their vehicle at home,” she noted.
Storey said ideas being explored to lessen potential vehicle overloads include discounting parking fees at Horseshoe Bay, dedicated shuttle service from Bowen Island to downtown Vancouver, water taxis, car sharing, commercial traffic reservations and barge service.
BC Ferries also chose January to April in an effort to lessen the impact on local residents, Storey said, because it’s generally a quieter time on Bowen.
“This time of year sees the lowest volume of tourists and development projects, which means commercial and largery vehicles are minimized,” she said. “BC Ferries knows that traffic volume increases as spring approaches, therefore the significant benefit to any of the service options implemented would likely be introduced during March and April.”
