A Roberts Creek mother touched off a political firestorm over BC Ferries last week, saying her son was stranded twice at Horseshoe Bay recently after missing the last ferry to Langdale because of rigid policies around cut-off times.
Megan Mansbridge told CBC Radio on Feb. 5 that her son Fynn was refused a walk-on ticket at Horseshoe Bay on two separate occasions after his bus arrived at the ferry terminal at 9:06 p.m., one minute after the cut-off for the 9:15 sailing.
Fynn, who commutes to Richmond four times a week to train with a national fencing coach, was put up the first time by his uncle in Vancouver. The second time, on Feb. 2, Mansbridge had to call another family whose son was involved in fencing, and they agreed to pick Fynn up and let him stay the night.
The complaint drew in Powell River - Sunshine Coast MLA Nicholas Simons, who wrote a letter demanding Transportation Minister Todd Stone take action with BC Ferries.
“What kind of organization has employees who are afraid for their job if they save a 14 year old from having to spend the night alone in a ferry terminal by stretching a cut-off by one minute?” Simons wrote. “This is a symptom of a serious larger problem.”
In response, Stone said he sympathized as a parent with the family’s ordeal, but noted the media’s version of the story was not entirely accurate.
“Although the accounts in the news did make it appear that BC Ferries was being inflexible, I understand that further investigation has shown that the youth took the wrong bus, one that was not scheduled to arrive until five minutes after the cut-off time,” Stone wrote in a letter to Simons.
“Taking an earlier bus or alerting BC Ferries staff to the situation earlier could have helped resolve the problem.”
Contacted Wednesday, Mansbridge acknowledged her son took a later bus on Feb. 2, but said the same bus “had worked for him in the past.”
She said Fynn’s bus arrived at 9:06 and “by the time they told him they wouldn’t sell him a ticket, it was 9:09.”
The first incident occurred “a few weeks before,” when Fynn was on the bus that was scheduled to arrive at 8:47 p.m., but was running late.
In both cases, she said, “the bottom line is he was there before the boat sailed and they should have let him onboard.”
Since airing her complaint, Mansbridge said she had “some good conversations” with a BC Ferries official and made progress toward addressing the issues.
The publicity, she said, has been valuable in bringing the issue of BC Ferries’ cut-off times to light, especially for minors, who are most vulnerable when they miss the last sailing.
She cited five separate stories that she’s heard of teenage boys being refused a ticket immediately after cut-off time, and one 16-year-old girl who had been turned away on Christmas Eve, which she spent hiding in an outdoor public washroom.
In his letter, Stone said West Vancouver Blue Bus Transit and BC Ferries have a good relationship and try to accommodate connections that are running late.
“Passengers can also ask their drivers to alert the ferry terminal if they are worried about missing the last sailing. In such situations, the ferry captain can delay the sailing, if it is safe to do so,” he wrote.
BC Ferries, he added, will contact the RCMP to provide aid if a youth or someone else needing assistance becomes stranded.
While there may be an opportunity to delay the ticket sales cut-off at the ticket booth by a minute or two, the 10 minutes is required to perform safety checks and ensure the vessel departs on time, BC Ferries spokesman Darin Guenette said.
