This Monday, BC Ferries released new schedules for ferries to both Snug Cove and Langdale, following a months-long consultation process. Bowen Island’s Ferry Advisory Committee Chair, Susanna Braund, says that a positive shift in attitude on the part of BC Ferries lies behind this schedule, and its release marks the beginning of a new phase in the relationship between the organization and coastal communities.
“Last year, BC Ferries decided to look to the schedules to address on-time performance,” says Braund. “They introduced a spread-schedule with longer turn-around times for docking, and brought these schedules to the FACs. We said no to these schedules, as they would negatively impact Bowen student and Langdale commuters. Initially, BC Ferries didn’t want to hear it, but ended up offering further consultation if we’d be willing to live with delays for a while longer.”
Braund says that accepting this deal seems to have paid off. For Bowen, the new schedule
“With more than 600 respondents to the schedule-survey from Bowen Island, I believe our needs were taken seriously,” says Braund. “And in light of those responses, BC Ferries identified five key priorities: to maintain key sailings e.g. for schoolkids and commuters, to achieve reliability, to increase frequency and capacity, to simplify the schedule (more a Langdale issue than a Bowen one), and to provide later sailings to Bowen and the Sunshine Coast. The new schedules reflect those priorities.”
Starting in January, the new schedule will see the first ferry of the day departing Snug Cove at 5:30am, and the last heading back to Horseshoe Bay at 10:30pm.
Key aspects to this new schedule, says Braund, include the fact that the 7:30am ferry from Snug Cove will remain in order to accommodate commuting students, the morning schedule will remain the same throughout the year, and the afternoon schedule will have the student run shift from a 3:30pm departure in the afternoon to a 3:45pm departure in the peak season.
So far, many islanders have responded positively to the new schedule - especially the later sailings in the evening. Parents of teenage hockey players, who have practices in West Vancouver ending at 9:15pm, will now cut down their number of trips on the water taxi from four to two times per week. Shift workers have expressed concern about no ferries before 6:20am on weekends, as have parents of kids who play off-island sports - as there is still no 7:30am ferry on Sundays.
