BC Ferries has cut sailings on the Langdale-Horseshoe Bay route to just six round-trips per day to “protect the health and safety of communities and ferry workers, ensure the resiliency of the coastal ferry service, and better match ferry service to current demand.”
The ferry company has also started screening passengers for potential symptoms of COVID-19 and to find out if they’ve recently returned from international travel, in response to new measures announced by Transport Canada on April 5.
Anyone who has specific symptoms – including a fever, cough and difficulty breathing – or who has been refused boarding in the past 14 days due to a COVID-19-related medical reason will be denied boarding, said Deborah Marshall of BC Ferries.
Those returning from abroad will still be able to ride the ferries as long as they don’t have symptoms.
“If you are travelling home and have not been tested positive and [are] not presumptive, are not exhibiting fever and a cough, fever and breathing difficulty, then you can travel,” Marshall said.
The company planned to put up posters at terminals showing the screening questions, and ticket agents can make sure passengers understand the questions being asked, she said.
The Transport Canada order includes guidelines that health checks should be conducted, where feasible, on every passenger for trips longer than 30 minutes, such as the Langdale-Horseshoe Bay run.
Transport Canada is also requiring operators to reduce the maximum number of passengers by 50 per cent or implement other measures, such as keeping passengers in their vehicles and adopting enhanced cleaning measures.
Marshall said BC Ferries was already doing many of the things Transport Canada is now requiring. “The missing piece was just the screening.”
BC Ferries had previously asked passengers to avoid all non-essential travel, in line with guidance from public health officials.
MPs consulted
West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country MP Patrick Weiler told Coast Reporter that MPs from areas where ferry travel is important were consulted by Transportation Minister Marc Garneau and shown drafts of the orders released on the weekend. “It was really important from my point of view to be able to share the specific context of BC Ferries, in particular for the riding, knowing the very real concerns that people would have if their travel to and from the Sunshine Coast might be restricted in a way that would impact them being able to get to essential appointments.”
Weiler said he thinks the measures give BC Ferries the flexibility to meet the guidelines “in ways that both meet standards and are appropriate for their given operation.”
Nicholas Simons, the MLA for Powell River-Sunshine Coast, said while every step needs to be taken to prevent spread of the virus, he finds the 30-minute threshold for sailings requiring screening arbitrary and hopes BC Ferries will apply the guidelines with some discretion and “common sense.”
“[People] can be self-isolated in their vehicle. Simply saying because they’re returning from travel or that they have a cough shouldn’t be enough to prevent them from getting home,” Simons said. “Refusing to allow someone to get home is a significant step. I don’t anticipate BC Ferries is going to do that, but I don’t like that they can.”
The service reduction, which is the company’s response to a drop in ridership of around 80 per cent, and a resulting hit to fare revenues, kicked in Saturday, April 4 and will last for 60 days, according to BC Ferries.
Other routes serving the Sunshine Coast, Powell River and Texada Island are not being cut at this time.
“Maintaining the delivery of essential goods and services and ensuring that health care and other essential workers can continue to use the ferry to commute to work will be a priority,” the company said.
Overall capacity across the ferry system has been reduced to half of what it would normally be at this time of year, including a complete suspension of sailings between Horseshoe Bay and Nanaimo.
Service to the mid-Island now consists of four round-trips per day between Tsawwassen and Duke Point, as well as four “cargo only” round trips on that run.
Tsawwassen-Swartz Bay was reduced to four round trips a day and changes are planned on the Tsawwassen-Southern Gulf Islands and Swartz Bay-Southern Gulf Islands routes, but the details are still being finalized.
The cuts on the Langdale-Horseshoe Bay route drop the service below the minimum outlined in the Coastal Ferry Services Contract, which calls for at least seven round trips per weekday and six on Sundays. The usual schedule at this time of year has eight round-trip sailings.
When the province first declared a state of emergency, Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth included the power to “direct passenger and car ferry operators, in consultation with the province, [to] provide minimum service levels and priority access for residents, and essential goods and workers.”
The Coastal Ferry Services Contract with the province has been amended to permit the service reductions and BC Ferries president Mark Collins said the changes allow for essential service levels. “We will continue to transport the goods communities rely on, and we will get people to where they need to go,” Collins said.
The new Langdale-Horseshoe Bay schedule, as of April 4, is:
Leaving Langdale:
• 6:20 a.m.
• 8:40 a.m.
• 10:50 a.m.
• 3:15 p.m.
• 5:25 p.m.
• 7:40 p.m.
Leaving Horseshoe Bay:
• 7:30 a.m.
• 9:45 a.m.
• 11:55 a.m.
• 4:20 p.m.
• 6:35 p.m.
• 8:34 p.m.
– With files from Victoria Times Colonist
