Sunshine Coast residents are reacting with outrage to B.C. Ferries' announced cancellation of some Saturday night and Sunday morning sailings on route three (Horseshoe Bay to Langdale).
Several sailings are being cancelled, including some Saturday night 6:30 p.m. sailings from Lang-dale and 7:25 p.m. sailings from Horse-shoe Bay, and on Sunday, some 6:20 a.m. sailings from Langdale and 7:20 a.m. sailings from Horseshoe Bay. The modified schedule will come into effect Oct. 18.
"There's a lot of people up in arms about this," said Theresa Nightingale of Sunshine Coast Athletics. "Anyone who wants to ski on a Sunday won't be able to go now. And hockey games are scheduled around the ferries."
Nightingale and her husband Larry organize several running races on the Sunshine Coast, including the popular April Fool's Run half marathon. The 2009 race is set for 9 a.m. on April 5 and last year drew 530 runners, 80 per cent of whom come from off-Coast, Nightingale said. "Most [running races] are on Sunday, and they start at 8, 9 or 10 a.m.," she added. "If [B.C. Ferries] chooses to ignore us, we'll have to do something physical."
Sunshine Coast Minor Hockey Association president Darragh Workman said the new schedule means new headaches for parents and coaches who "are all just attempting to entertain our kids and give them life skills to help them be productive members of society."
The minor hockey association's ice time of 10:45 a.m. booked at the Gibsons and Area Community Centre is now jeopardized by the fact visiting teams from the Lower Mainland may not have a 7:20 a.m. sailing from Horseshoe Bay available to them.
With a vehicle utilization of 16 per cent and passenger utilization of just five per cent, the 6:20 a.m. Sunday sailing from Langdale is the day's least-required sailing, said ferries spokesperson Deborah Marshall.
"This is very low utilization and the capacity for both the first and second round trips out of both terminals can be accommodated on the second sailing," she added. "We didn't want to cancel the last round trip [on Saturday night], as that may restrict evening activities in Vancouver."
Compared to September 2007, ferry use is down 3.2 per cent for vehicles and 3.7 per cent for passengers on route 3. (The Queen of Surrey holds 362 vehicles and 1,460 passengers.) On route one (Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay), ridership dropped by 12 per cent compared to last September.
Some off-peak hour sailings on route one and route two (Horseshoe Bay to Departure Bay) are also being cancelled. A total of 136 sailings on three routes have been cut between now and the end of March, when B.C. Ferries may reinstate some of the sailings. That decision will depend on the levels of ridership from now until then, Marshall said.
The southern Sunshine Coast ferry advisory committee (FAC) was not consulted prior to the schedule changes, which Marshall said had been in the works for about two weeks. Marshall said the ferry operator "certainly seeks their advice, but this was purely a business decision based on a drop in traffic."
"We have FACs set up to consult - it's not consultation when the views of those being consulted are summarily discarded," commented Powell River-Sunshine Coast MLA Nicholas Simons. "I've received a significant amount of mail on this subject already. Other areas of the province would be concerned if they knew our infrastructure had been privatized and the impact that's had on us. [The Trans-Canada Highway] doesn't get shut down when there are fewer cars."
If B.C.'s legislature was in session, Simons said the opposition could introduce a bill requiring more public supervision of the ferry system. Simons and other NDP MLAs gathered in Victoria on Monday to protest the cancellation of the fall sitting of legislature.
Under the Coastal Ferries Services Contract (CFSC), ferry employees will still start their work day at the same time in Langdale on Sundays, despite the first ferry not departing until 8:20 a.m. Marshall said ferry employees will use the time to run safety drills.
The modified schedules are a result of an amendment made to the CFSC last July, which allows one less round trip per day on each route, as long as extra round-trip sailings are added at a different time of year to ensure the annual number of sailings is unchanged.
