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Boat manifests dream of thriving commuter service to downtown Vancouver

The Bruno spent Sunday and Monday docked in Snug Cove for no reason other than the fact that its owner needed a break. “Until yesterday, I haven’t had a week off in thirteen weeks,” said Mike Shannon, owner and operator of the English Bay Launch.
BRUNO
Mike Shannon on the deck of the 50 passenger boat, the Bruno, parked in the Bowen Island marina this past weekend.

The Bruno spent Sunday and Monday docked in Snug Cove for no reason other than the fact that its owner needed a break.
“Until yesterday, I haven’t had a week off in thirteen weeks,” said Mike Shannon, owner and operator of the English Bay Launch. “I was using the Bruno to haul docks, but I needed a break. I needed to go home and cut the grass.”
The Bruno, is named after the actor Bruno Gerussi, who played Nick Adonidas in the tv series The Beachcombers. The boat came to Shannon from Gibson’s where the show was filmed.
“I should’ve renamed her The Perseverance because everyone who owns that boat goes broke,” says Shannon. “It was about six years ago, that the guy who owned the mortgage on it called me up and made me an offer, because the owner couldn’t keep up on the payments.”
That was not long after Shannon started running the English Bay Launch, the commuter service from Bowen to downtown Vancouver. He says that initially, he thought he could get the Bruno working for him on the route.
“I quickly learned that ridership is too inconsistent, and just to get the Bruno working would’ve required an immediate investment of nearly $100, 000. Six years later, the boat is just about ready, it’s a few weeks away I’d say, but I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it.”
Shannon says that per-passenger, the Bruno is better on fuel than his twelve-seater boat, The High Flyer, but he is not confident he could fill it on a regular basis for commuting runs.
“I’ve been in talks with the mayor over in Gibson’s, They are interested in getting a commuter service to downtown Vancouver and have offered me support and the use of their docks, but if I were to do that I would still want to make a stop on Bowen,” says Shannon. “Also, if it pans out and BC Ferries gets on board with the idea, the Bruno could be used to reduce vehicle overloads when the Queen of Capilano goes in for refits in January.”
This is a plan that Bowen Island Transportation Advisory Committee (BIMTAC) member Ken Simpson is keen to see come into fruition.
“I think it would be really great for people to experience a comfortable ride directly into downtown Vancouver,” says Simpson. “The Bruno is a catamaran, and its seats are like airplane seats. It is hard for people to step away from the routines they develop commuting, and if we want to get people out of their cars we’re going to have to be able to offer a certain level of comfort.”
Simpson says that based on a survey conducted in 2005 over the period of a week, roughly one-third of the people boarding the ferry on weekday mornings in Snug Cove are heading downtown.
“But we really need to update this information, and find out more details – like how many of these people drive regularly, how many take the bus, and so on,” he says, adding that BIMTAC is currently working on a survey to better understand the commuting plans of Bowen Islanders.
“We’re hoping that BC Ferries will help to facilitate this,” says Simpson. “We need to know where cars are going to reduce traffic during the refit.”
The refit is estimated to take four months, and the slated replacement for the Queen of Capilano, the Bowen Queen, will have 20 percent less vehicle capacity.
“If we could transport one-hundred people every morning directly to downtown Vancouver, as we could if the Bruno were operating, that would completely solve the overload issue. Whether BC Ferries will foot the bill for this is yet to be determined, but I think that if the mayor and council say something is worthy of consideration, BC Ferries will at the very least take a look.”