Re: “After hectic Friday, Monday ferry traffic ‘super mellow,’ ” April 23.
The Times Colonist reported that “passengers faced major delays and confusion” on Good Friday, with lengthy sailing waits and traffic chaos outside the terminals.
Ferry workers share many of the same frustrations as the travelling public, and believe the current arrangement of policy and capacity amid increased demand will cause this situation to repeat itself over the coming months.
Several factors will influence ferry travel, such as a low dollar keeping people in B.C. or nice weather on a long weekend. Increasing population and tourism in southwestern B.C. brings increased demand overall — B.C. Ferries has seen a 14 per cent increase in vehicle ridership since 2014. On the supply side, B.C. Ferries’ carrying capacity has not increased on major routes since 2008, while unanticipated vessel outages highlight a lack of spare-vessel capacity.
Adding to supply and demand issues, the number of reserved vehicles for certain sailings has increased, while the total carrying capacity on major routes has not. Where under-height vehicle reservations previously did not exceed 50 per cent of capacity on a given sailing, they now regularly exceed 60 per cent for certain peak sailings, with assured-loading vehicles taking up to another 10 per cent of the total space. (Assured-loading tickets provide guaranteed travel for an additional $155 per use, with a minimum purchase of 10).
For example, take the Queen of Oak Bay a decade ago sailing Horseshoe Bay to Nanaimo (320 automobile-equivalent capacity, with 220 under-height spaces) — under-height vehicle reservations totalled 80 per sailing (47 per cent of under-height deck space).
Take the same Queen of Oak Bay on Easter 2019: under-height vehicle reservations of 150 per sailing (88 per cent of under-height deck space), plus reserved commercial and over-height, assured-loading-ticket vehicles, and any remaining unreserved commercial and over-height vehicles.
B.C. Ferries reservation policies on major routes lead to reserved traffic eating the majority of what B.C. Ferries calls “liftoff capacity.” This means passengers travelling without reservations are left competing for fewer available spaces amid longer wait times.
In the fall, B.C. Ferries will look to switch to variable pricing to help eliminate waits for those able to plan far enough ahead to secure a reservation by using lower pricing on off-peak sailings and removing reservation fees. While this will help, only a clear will to operate the system in the public interest can fairly resolve capacity issues.
Such a resolve requires government and B.C. Ferries to work together on capital and service planning to ensure a more robust, fair system for the people, goods and services that travel our marine highways.
For now, there remains limited space on vessels and terminals, with increased ridership and lower standby capacity. Our advice to those who cannot secure/afford a reservation for peak sailing dates is to travel either very early or very late.
If you must travel during peak times and get caught up in the mess, please know our ferry workers will get you to your destination as quickly and safely as possible. If you end up in a long wait, please remember frontline staff can’t fix B.C. Ferries’ policies or capacity issues — that fix requires government and B.C. Ferries to work together to create a marine-highway system befitting and benefiting all British Columbians.
Graeme Johnston is the provincial president of the B.C. Ferry and Marine Workers’ Union.
