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Poor transit service hinders ferry passengers

Re: “UBCM wants Ferries to change course,” Sept. 11. As ferry fares increase, more customers are coming aboard as foot passengers.

Re: “UBCM wants Ferries to change course,” Sept. 11.

As ferry fares increase, more customers are coming aboard as foot passengers. The ships themselves adapt to this change fairly well, but the transit services at both ends of the Tsawwassen-Swartz Bay run are absurd.

My partner and I are in our 70s and would like to enjoy our passage, but the transit connections make this impossible.

If you take the Canada Line from downtown Vancouver to Bridgeport Station, you are required to queue to get on the bus to the ferry. Only coins and passes are accepted and there is no nearby place to obtain change. Many individuals ignore the queue and simply go to the head of the line. When the bus arrives, it is “every man for himself” and there is always a welter of pushing and shoving. The bus is not equipped for any kind of luggage, and there are always passengers dragging along huge backpacks, suitcases, skateboards and musical instruments, which end up on the scarce seats. Since the buses are infrequent, they are always packed, with many standees.

The ferry-transit experience is so dreadful that we subject ourselves to it only rarely. Simple solutions would be cheap and easy, but no one seems to give a damn, so it remains.

Let us hope a few of the delegates to the Union of B.C. Municipalities use public transit to get to their conference, but I sure won’t hold my breath waiting for that to happen.

Jon Blair

Sidney