Editor:
On July 1, I was heading to the Sunshine Coast for the long weekend. I planned to arrive at the ferry terminal around 8 a.m., expecting there to be fairly big lineups. I fully expected to miss the 9:50 a.m. ferry to Langdale, but was hoping to make the 10:40 a.m. sailing. What I did not expect was to be lined up along the shoulder of the highway!
At 8:10 a.m. when I arrived at the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal, the lineup extended back to Caulfield Drive along the shoulder of Highway 99. An hour later, it was past 21st Street. We inched along the shoulder of the highway for an hour before finally getting into the upper lot (before the toll booths) at the terminal. Around 10:35, we finally got through the toll booth and were sent down to the lower lot, which to our amazement was COMPLETELY EMPTY, and we drove right on to the 10:40 a.m. ferry leaving for Langdale. They delayed the departure of the ferry until 10:55 a.m., slowly loading the ferry as cars came down one by one from the toll booths. However, the ferry departed only 75 per cent full. This is ridiculous!
The ferry lineups we experienced, and particularly the backup along the highway, were completely the result of BC Ferries’ mismanagement. BC Ferries should have made every effort to fill the upper and lower lots at the terminal so that the ferries could be filled quickly and efficiently to 100 per cent capacity. I appreciate that BC Ferries has not seen these volumes in 16 months and was perhaps not fully prepared to handle the traffic, but not filling the lots, backing the cars up for miles along the highway and having ferries depart under capacity is quite simply unacceptable. BC Ferries needs to get their act together!
Mary Fry, Vancouver
