The ferry line of cars snaking up past BICS has been an increasingly common sight as summer dawns and overloads become more common.
Some locals are saying that there’s been an abnormally high level of ferry trouble lately and it’s been a daily complaint on the island Facebook group.
Karen Munro owns Bowen Island Dog Ranch and depends on the ferries to shuttle dogs to and from the mainland daily. The delays have been making her late for appointments and keeping families waiting on both ends of the run, she said.
“I’ve been in business over 10 years now and have not seen this much havoc from BC Ferries ever,” she said.
Numerous people, on the Bowen run and others, also report ferries departing early with several empty spaces on board.
Marina Pratchett said she had to run for a 6:20 a.m. ferry last Friday, just making it on board, but the ferry left two cars behind despite having space and time. “In 28 years on Bowen I have never seen this happen,” she said.
Kim Smith and her husband have noticed boats leaving early as well.
“I have heard that they can close the gates two minutes early, but, where is the sense of humanity,” asked Smith over email. “Especially on the last ferry. As many of us islanders can attest to, there have been countless examples of being left behind, stranded. We greatly depend on this service and if we follow the rules, BC Ferries should as well.”
There were five press releases in the past week from B.C. Ferries, each day warning passengers of a delay of 20 minutes or more.
On Facebook and in emails to the Undercurrent, speculation ranges from increased weekend traffic and summer traffic, as well as contractors’ vehicles. Nobody has so far been able to satisfactorily tell the Undercurrent what’s causing the holdup.
B.C. Ferries says that there has been more traffic lately. “For the period of April 1, 2017 to March 31, 2018, vehicle traffic was up 5.72 per cent and passenger traffic was up 6.06 per cent on the Horseshoe Bay – Bowen Island route over the same period the year prior,” says executive director of public affairs, Deborah Marshall over email.
Marshall also said that, anecdotally, the Horseshoe Bay staff has found that there’s more traffic. She suggests the April 1 fare cuts could have stimulated the increased flow of people and cars.
Marshall noted that “for the first 21 days of May, [stats] show that 80.4 per cent of sailings departed within 10 minutes of the scheduled departure time.”
Susanna Braund is the chair of Bowen’s Ferry Advisory Committee, meant to facilitate communication to and from B.C. Ferries.
She’s noticed the lineups and acknowledges the frustrations of locals.
Braund notes that Horseshoe Bay has only three berths and more than 30 runs from its terminal every day. There can also only be one ferry moving in the bay at once, and priority is given to larger ferries.
This makes staying on time very important so as to not back up the system too much. Indeed, one of the most common reasons B.C. Ferries gives for delays is “berth congestion.”
She says that in order to keep to the schedule, the ferry can leave even when it’s not full and there are cars waiting to board.
“The captain has discretion to leave whenever he sees fit.”
B.C. Ferries is planning on redeveloping its Horseshoe Bay terminal and the public can give their thoughts online at https://www.bcferries.com/about/hsbvision/ .
However, it’s a narrow harbour and there isn’t necessarily room for another berth said Braund.
“It’s a very difficult infrastructure thing,” she said.
