Did BC Ferries’ six-week public engagement program tell us anything that we didn’t already know about priorities and preferences for Sunshine Coast ferry users?
That was the question we put this week to Diana Mumford, who chairs the Southern Sunshine Coast Ferry Advisory Committee (FAC), after the ferry corporation released a 48-page report on the results of the exercise.
Her answer: No, not really.
“The engagement process generally did not provide anything that our ferry advisory committee and most coastal residents did not already know,” Mumford told us Wednesday. “However, our FAC requested this process for the opportunity to definitively show evidence to BC Ferries of the needs of our coastal communities. It was a strong voice of over 4,000, compared to the very small FAC group.”
The most valuable information to come out of the process, she added, “was the very strong message of the need for more frequent sailings, sailing times that meet the needs of commuters, and improved reliability for posted sailing times.”
That message was certainly contained in the report, along with background on the challenges of operating out of the Horseshoe Bay terminal and how schedule changes on any route have a domino effect. “Sailings from three different routes need to be sequenced to make efficient use of limited docking space and a single lane for off-loading vehicle traffic,” the report points out. “In addition, vessels cannot pass each other while entering or leaving the terminal, meaning when one vessel is leaving or entering its berth, all other vessels must stop and wait.”
BC Ferries says its long-term plan to improve capacity and frequency on Route 3 will take five years to realize, due to the need for terminal upgrades and the purchase of two new vessels. While that plan has been criticized as a delaying tactic to justify substandard service and lack of imagination, Mumford said she is hopeful about the future for Route 3 under BC Ferries’ new president, Mark Collins, and his vision of the ferry service.
“Despite the lengthy time frame for a more comprehensive fix for our route, I am seeing BCF add more sailings this summer and into the fall (shoulder season), working to provide a longer schedule that will hopefully improve on-time performance and communicating regularly with ferry users in detailed updates published in local papers,” she said.
We don’t know if Mumford’s faith in the new president’s vision is warranted, but we applaud the short-term improvements to the schedule. And we give BC Ferries credit for listening to what the Sunshine Coast had to say and presenting the results of its engagement with minimal spin.
The true test will come in early fall when the corporation goes public with new schedule options and its plans to address “the key considerations brought forward by the community.”
Until then, should we cut BC Ferries a little slack?
Why not? Early fall is just around the corner.
