After nearly three months in dry-dock and $3 million in repairs, the Queen of Surrey returned to service between Horseshoe Bay and Langdale on Thursday.
"She had her last session of sea trials [Monday]. They went out for several hours and were very successful so engineering has now deemed the vessel clear to sail and put it back into operation," said Deborah Marshall, B.C. Ferries' director of media relations.
Marshall said the Surrey's return will allow B.C. Ferries to go back to its originally planned summer schedule, which will include 5:50 p.m. commuter sailings from Horseshoe Bay on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. B.C. Ferries will be eliminating the two last runs from Langdale on Sundays and adding an additional Saturday morning run from Horseshoe Bay, bringing the total number of increased summer sailings from nine to 12.
Commuters from the Sunshine Coast and the Ferry Advisory Committee (FAC) have long-lobbied for a daily evening sailing to coincide with the end of the workday. B.C. Ferries agreed in May to an FAC-proposed trial schedule that would involve some vessel swapping and earlier sailings at the end of the day to keep those daily commuter sailings throughout the summer at no extra cost to ferry riders.
Marshall said that trial can now continue, albeit for a shorter time.
"It's going to be an abbreviated trial, but I think even with four or five weeks, that's going to give us a good indication and the customers a good indication as to whether it's working," she said.
She said B.C. Ferries has been receiving complaints from commuters about the cancelled evening sailings in the meantime.
"I know when we had to make the announcement back in June, obviously, the commuters were disappointed because we worked really hard with the Ferry Advisory Committee to come up with the solution," she said. "We agreed to have it implemented and funded, and then unfortunately, with the Surrey being out of service, we weren't able to do that."
As for on-time performance rates while the Surrey was out of service, Marshall said she did not have exact figures available, but "it was below our expectation."
Marshall said the poor on-time performance could be attributed to the Surrey being out of use and only partially replaced by the Queen of Cowichan and Coastal Renaissance as well as delays caused by heavy summer traffic.
Marshall expressed regret for the delays.
"We apologize to our customers. We know the summertime is really important for the Langdale customers not only for the commuters, but for the tourism customers on the Sunshine Coast. We certainly apologize, and we really understand the impact to the customers. We're glad to have it back in service," she said.
The Surrey was taken out of service after mechanical problems led to a seized engine on May 4. The company then had to order a 13-tonne bedplate from Germany and re-machine it in B.C. before it could be installed. Marshall said none of the $3 million in repair costs will be passed on to ferry riders.
FAC representative Jakob Knaus said bringing in the Cowichan and Renaissance were "positive steps" but preventive maintenance on B.C. Ferries' ships is lacking.
He said he believes on-time performance should improve and noted the Queen of Coquitlam was between 30 and 60 minutes late almost every day for the last three weeks.
"It was lousy," he said. "My only comment to B.C. Ferries is 'I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for plain sailing for the rest of the year,'" Knaus said with a laugh.
