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FAC welcomes commuter sailing trial, but will keep pushing for earlier time

BC Ferries

The Sunshine Coast Ferry Advisory Committee (FAC) says it’s pleased with the news BC Ferries is adding a “commuter round trip” to the Langdale route as a trial from Sept. 5 to Oct. 6, but it’s still hoping for a permanent 5:30 p.m. sailing from Horseshoe Bay.

The changes announced by BC Ferries, which include keeping the Queen of Surrey on a summer schedule until Thanksgiving, ensure a 5:50 p.m. departure from Horseshoe Bay every weekday until the end of the year.

In recent years many Sunshine Coasters, including the FAC and Sunshine Coast Regional District chair Garry Nohr, have expressed a preference for a 5:30 p.m. sailing over one leaving at 5:50 p.m.

In a statement on the FAC’s behalf, chair Diana Mumford said, “The 5:50 sailing is only until the end of December, when BC Ferries intends to introduce a new schedule with longer times between sailings, with the hope to improve on-time performance. The FAC has not been provided with a preview of the new schedule, but will continue to work with BC Ferries to find scheduling solutions that meet the needs of Sunshine Coast residents and which address the need for a 5:30 p.m. commuter sailing. This same message came through loud and clear in the recent community engagement process by BC Ferries.”

Deborah Marshall, the ferry company’s executive director of public affairs, said because the extra trip will be done using the Queen of Coquitlam, 5:50 p.m. was the only time that works.

“We’re sharing the extra ship, the Queen of Coquitlam, with Route 2 – the Departure Bay run,” Marshall explained. “The crew is based in Nanaimo, so the ship has to leave Nanaimo [before making the Horseshoe Bay-Langdale trip] and if we had it leave earlier for a 5:30 p.m. sailing on the Langdale run, you’d have two ships leaving Nanaimo at the same time.”

Marshall also said the trial will provide another piece of the puzzle as BC Ferries works to create a new schedule for the route that will start in 2018.

Last month Ferries experimented with loading foot passengers after the vehicles at Langdale to see if it would speed up the turnaround time. The company said in a statement last week that, based on feedback, they won’t make the change permanent – but in the same statement, it said something valuable was learned.

“As part of this trial, crews increased space between vehicles to allow freer passage for foot passengers. Allowing more space between vehicles results in a much quicker total loading time, and permits the vessel to keep on schedule. This practice is called express loading,” the statement reads. “As a result, BC Ferries will not use the end-of-load method for foot passengers in the future, but will use express loading selectively to get back on schedule after delays.”

Marshall said what that means in practical terms is that crews will no longer make an extra effort to squeeze on a few extra vehicles if the result is putting a sailing even farther behind schedule. She also said it’s impossible to say in advance what threshold crews will use to decide if they want to go with “express loading,” and she acknowledges it will inconvenience some passengers. 

“We’ve got to balance the needs of those eight, or however many extra vehicles we could put on the ship, if we took the extra time, versus how many people we would be delaying,” Marshall said. “It’s not a science, it’s more of an art.”

The new schedules are now available online at bcferries.com