BC Ferries and the Southern Sunshine Coast Ferry Advisory (FAC) committee say a willingness to think outside the box and consider some “creative scheduling” has led to a new schedule that addresses most of the feedback from a recent public consultation.
The schedule announced by BC Ferries this week begins Jan. 2, 2018 and includes a 6:20 a.m. sailing from Langdale and a 5:30 p.m. departure from Horseshoe Bay, daily throughout the year, to fit the needs of commuters.
There will also be late-night sailings from Horseshoe Bay to Langdale at 10:55 p.m. during the off-peak season, and 11:20 p.m. during the shoulder and peak seasons. In order to make that work with the current eight round-trips, the gap between sailings is increasing, which will also improve on-time performance, according to BC Ferries.
The Earls Cove-Saltery Bay schedule will be adjusted to allow better connections.
Mark Collins, BC Ferries president and CEO, said that while the public consultation made it clear Sunshine Coast residents wanted the late-night return trips and the commuter-friendly sailings, an extended day also needed buy-in from ferry workers and changes on the Horseshoe Bay-Nanaimo route to allow an integrated schedule.
“We had to approach our employees to change the way we schedule them on those routes. We’re moving from an eight-hour day to a 10-hour day,” Collins said. “We always engage with our crews on such changes. We had to talk to them and get their opinion. This is a big life change for them.”
Collins also explained that, when the new schedule starts, Route 3 will be served by a combination of the Queen of Surrey and the C-Class ships on the Horseshoe Bay-Nanaimo route, with some trips involving the ferry doing an “L-run” such as Nanaimo-Horseshoe Bay-Langdale.
He said the arrangement means more round trips between Horseshoe Bay and Nanaimo as well.
BC Ferry and Marine Workers Union president Graeme Johnston said the collective agreement “contemplates” the type of adjustments the new schedule calls for.
“Our members’ access to some overtime provisions will be affected but the proposed changes will create additional regular jobs and opportunities for professional development,” he said in a written statement for Coast Reporter.
“The union continues to consult with our membership and BC Ferries on how to best mitigate adverse impacts while capitalizing on potential benefits.”
FAC chair Diana Mumford said the new schedule represents a “big win” for the current FAC, which worked to drive home the need for a consistent 5:30 p.m. commuter sailing during the recent consultations, as well as past FAC members who’d been making similar arguments for years.
“Over this last decade it has been a continuous message that [5:30 sailings are] what the FAC wanted for Coast residents, and it’s finally been achieved.”
Mumford said the FAC came away from recent meetings with BC Ferries confident that the preservation of commuter sailings will continue to be part of BC Ferries’ thinking around Route 3.
“They’re not going to give it to us and pull it away again. This was something that [BC Ferries] felt really needed to be done. They got the message from the FAC. They got the message from the community engagement.”
Mumford calls a commuter-friendly schedule a bread-and-butter issue for the Sunshine Coast and the health of the local economy. “People are leaving the city with young families and trying to commute back to the city for work. And if they can’t do the ferries, we’re going to lose those people.”
Collins said the new schedule comes with additional costs for BC Ferries. “This represents an additional investment by BC Ferries to get us to a service [level] that meets our customers’ expectations. Yes, there’s a cost. But it’s a cost we’re happy to take to make it work,” said Collins, adding that it’s too early to release any numbers because they’re still only estimates. “We have to run this now and see how it goes… Bottom line is there’s no impact on fares,” he said.
Collins also said BC Ferries is confident that the NDP government’s plan for fare reductions won’t have any impact. “The new government is also focused on making sure that good service is provided to communities as well. Affordable service, I certainly hear that as a government objective, but also good service,” he said.
Collins said he feels the new schedule is a good response to the needs of the community in the short term, but both he and Mumford acknowledge the longer-term response will have to address the increased demand that’s caused more frequent overloads and delays in recent years. “This does not resolve all the issues,” said Mumford. “If you look at the current conditions on the ferry, it’s jam-packed. That’s capacity. That’s a bigger, more long-term issue.”
The BC Ferries release announcing the changes says “two-vessel operation with hourly service” is still part of its future plans, and Collins said that those plans are tied to improvements at Langdale terminal, new vessels and upgrades to Horseshoe Bay, which are at least five years down the road. “It absolutely can be done, but it takes big investment – we’re certainly talking hundreds of millions of dollars. We have budgeted for that. In our long-term capital plan we have major dollars allocated for ships and terminals.”
