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Angry ferry travellers stuck for hours in hot line-ups at the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal after ferries broke down for the second day in a row say the ferry corporation needs to do a better job of letting their customers know what’s going on.
They said there should also be a system in place to prevent people having to sit in hot line-ups outside the terminal without access to water or bathroom facilities for hours.
Traffic began backing up at the West Vancouver terminal after the Queen of Surrey ferry to the Sunshine Coast broke down Wednesday afternoon. The mechanical breakdown was the third one on that route in two days. On Tuesday, a different mechanical problem with the same ship caused cancellations and delays of several sailings. A second ferry brought in as a back-up also had a mechanical problem which had to be repaired and caused more delays.
Lisa Miller-Stiver was one of the customers who had to wait for several hours in line-ups outside the Horseshoe Bay terminal on Wednesday afternoon.
She described the situation at the ferry terminal as “mayhem,” adding she’d received little to no information from BC Ferries about what was happening, except to be directed to the website, which was not being updated.
Traffic staff instead were directing drivers with reservations to leave the main line up and circle around the village of Horseshoe Bay in order to re-enter the line-up at the Caulfeild highway exit in West Vancouver.
Miller-Stiver said she was told to repeat that process multiple times over several hours.
“I’ve been driving in circles,” she said. “It’s ridiculous. There’s no one communicating.”
Miller-Stiver said she felt especially bad for people with medical conditions or families with young children who had been stuck in the line-up outside the terminal.
“There’s no food, there’s no water,” she said.
Young people who were directing traffic were doing the best they could, but appeared to have little information either, she said.
She said instead of making cars line up along the side of the highway outside Horseshoe Bay, BC Ferries should allow more cars into the terminal to wait – where people can at least access washrooms. “It’s inhumane,” she said of making cars wait on the highway for hours. “It’s an ongoing problem.”
Sunshine Coast resident Kelsey Oxley was another traveller caught in line-ups Wednesday afternoon. Oxley said she had been in Vancouver for a specialist medical appointment. "I don't feel awesome and I'd really like to go home," she said. "There's been absolutely no information."
Oxley said she had a similar experience back in February after her six-year-old was discharged from Lions Gate Hospital.
Oxley said on Wednesday she even saw people climbing over the highway divider looking for a place to relieve themselves without a bathroom anywhere close by.
Emma Judd was stuck in the same line-up in West Vancouver with her grandparents Wednesday afternoon. She said they were also directed to do repeated loops through Horseshoe Bay and the Caulfield exit.
“There was no really clear information,” she said. “We got the impression the people running the traffic were just as confused as we were.”
Frequent ferry traveller Fred Hoppe was heading to Nanaimo when he got caught in the ferry chaos on Wednesday.
Hoppe said he had trouble getting to the ticket booth because line-ups on the side of the highway were being blocked by Sunshine Coast traffic. Hoppe said he got contradictory information from two different attendants directing traffic on the highway. Eventually he made it on to the Nanaimo ferry, which he said sailed half empty "because no one could get through."
Travellers who were stuck in line-ups returning from medical appointments or work also vented their frustrations on social media.
The Queen of Surrey was eventually repaired and returned to service around 4 p.m. on Wednesday.
Deborah Marshall, spokesperson for BC Ferries, said different mechanical problems plagued the ship on Tuesday and Wednesday.
On Tuesday, crews had to wait for a replacement part for one of the controllable pitch propellers to arrive and be installed, she said.
The replacement ship, the Queen of Coquitlam, also had a problem with its fuel pump on Tuesday, which had to be repaired, resulting in more delays, said Marshall.
Another ferry out of Horseshoe Bay – the 6:15 p.m. sailing to Nanaimo – was also cancelled on Wednesday over a crew shortage.
“We’ve exhausted all options to replace this person, so we’ve had to cancel one round trip,” said Marshall.
“We certainly apologize to our customers for the inconvenience they experienced over the past two days.”
Marshall added an extra ferry sailing with the Queen of Alberni had been added to the Langdale run out of Horseshoe Bay at 7:20 pm. Wednesday with an extra return trip out of Langdale at 8:30 p.m.
