Ferry Working Group responds to BC Ferries proposals

The Gabriola Ferry Working Group has reviewed the BCF alternative schedule following receipt of your comments. Many thanks to everyone who responded.  Our recommendations are summarized in the following points, which we believe will address the vast majority of your concerns:

• the morning shift should be advanced by 10 minutes (starting at 5:30 AM and ending with a 1:30 PM departure from Nanaimo),
• the afternoon shift should be delayed by 10 minutes (starting at 3:15 PM and ending with an 11:15 PM departure from Nanaimo),
• the Dangerous Cargo sailing should be moved to either Monday or Friday, when traffic is generally less than it is on Wednesday,
• the refuelling should take place an hour later (between 10 PM and 11PM) and should be moved to Monday evenings when traffic is lowest, and
• to reduce serious backups on both the Nanaimo and Gabriola sides additional mid-day sailings (dep. Gabriola at 2:05 PM, Nanaimo at 2:40 PM) should be added on Mondays to Thursdays over a 10-week period from late June to early September.

These recommendations have been forwarded to BC Ferries for investigation ahead of our meeting, which is scheduled for March 12.  Gabriola FAC Chair, John Hodgkins, believes the group’s biggest challenge is to convince BC Ferries that the reinstatement of the mid-day sailings will be revenue positive. “We have done a great deal of research into how much revenue will be put at risk if these services are not reinstated during the peak summer months. We believe that BC Ferries could risk losing more than twice what it would cost to run an extra sailing – even at overtime rates. We’re talking about putting back 40 round trips out of the 834 that government has told BC Ferries to cut”

In a recent message to Ferry Advisory Committee Chairs, BC Ferries outlined their view on what will be “on the table” for discussion when they meet with stakeholder groups:

“The purpose of the discussion on refinements is to identify a schedule to meet the financial savings set by the Province. The discussions are intended to identify achievable refinements within the following guidelines:

Implementing sailing schedules, including refinements, is the responsibility of BC Ferries. Refinement discussions will be on sailings times and do not encompass fares, service level increases or operating practice and must achieve financial savings

Discussions will include community needs for the remaining sailing times, e.g.:

• Mid-day breaks
• Layover periods
• Connectivity to other routes
• Dangerous cargo sailings
• Connectivity to transit

The working group’s full submission to BC Ferries can be downloaded here.  Included in the submission are a series of graphs depicting the impact of the proposed schedule on existing ferry traffic. “The graphs starkly demonstrate just how much traffic will  be displaced by the missing daytime sailings, and how long ferry line-ups will be at both ends of the route if we cannot reach agreement on the midday summer sailing” said Hodgkins. “The impact will be felt all year, but it’s most serious during the peak summer period from the end of June to early September, so that’s the focus of our proposal to BC Ferries.  During July and August, ferry line-ups on the Gabriola side could regularly peak at around 150 vehicles – that’s more than double the capacity of the Quinsam, meaning line-ups could extend way back to the campground entrance and beyond, where there’s no safe queueing area”

On the Nanaimo side, the working group predicts regular summer overloads of 50 or more vehicles throughout the afternoon peak (3pm to 6pm and beyond) – that’s enough to block the whole of Front Street from the ferry booth back to Esplanade, potentially obstructing traffic flow through the bottleneck by the transit stops at Port Place Mall. “We don’t believe BC Ferries has  a management plan that will address this” said Hodgkins.