The Queen of Capilano quietly got an upgrade last December.
Transport Canada increased the number of people allowed on board (passengers and crew) while the ferry is operating at a B licence by approximately 40 people.
Operating at a B license means that the ferry requires fewer crew.
This means that the Queen of Capilano can regularly carry around 432 people. The A licence wasn’t increased at the same time, meaning A and B licences now have the same capacity.
Darin Guenette, a spokesperson for BC Ferries noted in an email that the new capacity is likely high enough to prevent repeats of the 7:30 a.m. commuter run passenger overloads of last spring and fall.
“B licence should provide more than enough capacity to carry everyone on the busiest sailings,” he said. “Unless there is a some sort of significant increase to the regular number of passengers that tend to use the busiest sailings, we would not expect to see a ‘passenger overload’ situation.”
“Caution must be noted for any large foot passenger group (extraordinary special event, tourist groups, school outing, etc) that would travel for a unique reason; we would always recommend they plan on travelling outside of the most popular sailing times,” said Guenette.
