BC Ferries will reinstate the 6:20 a.m. round-trip sailing from Langdale to Horseshoe Bay for the fall and spring shoulder season in response to “excessive delays” experienced last fall and spring.
“We’re actually adding it back into our schedule moving forward here on either side of what we would call our normal peak season because without it there have been excessive delays, overloads and customer dissatisfaction, so it just didn’t work not having a sailing,” said Darin Guenette, BC Ferries public affairs manager.
“On the Sundays, the morning itself where the round trip was moved didn’t experience any of these problems, but what happened was the afternoon schedule got worse.”
In April of last year the province directed BC Ferries to eliminate a total of 40 round-trip sailings on Sundays between Horseshoe Bay and Langdale during off-peak periods in order to find savings.
“It turns out in those shoulders that day just doesn’t work for anybody, certainly not for the customers and certainly not for the employees on the vessels,” Guenette said, noting a change had to be made.
“It had too negative of an effect.”
There were some savings realized during the shortened sailing days, but Guenette said those savings were part of an overall fleet-wide cost cutting effort and that specific route savings couldn’t be produced.
Barry Cavens, chair of the Route 3 Ferry Advisory Committee (FAC), said his group has been pushing to have the early Sunday morning sailing reinstated and he was pleased with the response by BC Ferries this week.
“It’s been a problem in the shoulder season, in the spring and fall, so I think it’s great,” Cavens said.
“We were most concerned about the shoulder seasons, but we are going to continue to have discussions with BC Ferries about schedules in total.”
He noted there is an upcoming public FAC meeting scheduled for Oct. 27 at 10:30 a.m. at the Gibsons and Area Community Centre in room 219, if anyone in the community wants to attend and give their input.
“What we want are sailings that work for the community and that has to be adjusted according to traffic and demand and the needs of the commuters and everybody else on the Coast,” Cavens said.
“Schedules are an ongoing discussion.”
The new fall schedule starts Sept. 13. Find out more at www.bcferries.com
