BCFerries (BCF) proudly refers to its discount card as the Experience Card.
About 85 per cent of all trips to Bowen are paid for using this card (the highest rate for any route in the BCF system). Yet the “experience” is not necessarily a pleasant one.
On a summer’s day, the scenery of Howe Sound is breathtaking, even in winter the various shades of gray are an artist’s delight. Yet that is not our “experience.”
Our collective experience is one of having our pockets picked, of paying first-class fares for third-class service. The handling of vehicle traffic can best be described as industrial, while the foot passenger handling facilities at both the Horseshoe Bay and Snug Cove terminals are brutal.
Foot passengers with any kind of need ranging from luggage to small children and dogs, to those with real physical handicaps are, frankly, discouraged. The BCF system is not passenger-friendly.
While some improvements will be made to the Queen of Capilano during its midlife upgrade, the rest of the experience is likely to remain unchanged. Indeed, it will be degraded during the upgrade because of the lack of services on the Bowen Queen, at the very time when we want to encourage individuals to leave their cars at home.
BCF must look more closely at its terminal operations, as part of the overall “experience”.
This leads us to the period beyond the upgrade. BCF will be making its initial fare and service proposals to the government and the ferry commissioner this fall.
They are bound to ask for higher fares, since BCF seems unable to control their two major operational costs, labour and fuel, and the government is likely to respond with a requirement for yet more service reductions.
So far the cuts have fallen on the minor routes (islands, like us) neither the government nor BCF have made any cuts to their Vancouver Island service. It is easy to get better efficiencies on the Vancouver Island runs, all BCF has to do is alter the number of vessels and schedule of sailings, something impossible when there is only one vessel serving the route.
At the same time, BCF is offering for the summer significant discounts for over-length private boat trailers and RVs, but only on the routes leaving Tsawassan for Vancouver Island.
The negotiations between BCF and the government (and for that matter, the subsequent negotiations with the BC Ferry Workers Union) will heavily impact us all on Bowen Island.
We cannot assume that our interests will be protected by any of the parties in the process. We will have to make our own separate submission(s) to the ferry commissioner, outlining the economic and social costs that have been, and will be, inflicted on our community. We must present a united front to ensure that we do not let our message be divided by individual visions of the future.
Adam Holbrook is the chairman of the Bowen Island Municipality Transportation Advisory Committee (BIMTAC).
