Editor:
BC Ferries’ announcement of their long anticipated automated reservation system may well create some greater measure of convenience for the travelling public. It may also save some people a small amount of money by choosing to travel on a sailing that is less than ideal for their travel needs, but additional out of pocket costs thus incurred may well consume any minimal fare savings.
Overall, we should not expect to see any significant fare reductions as a result of the automated reservation system.
The recently announced elimination of the 3.5 per cent fuel surcharge is welcome, but it simply reflects plummeting fuel prices and doesn’t address the overall fares or service levels.
BC Ferries is trying, within its narrow mandate, to manage the system as best they can within the contract given to it by the provincial government. And that’s where the problem lies. Its mandate leaves it little scope other than to pick away at the edges of the problem. It is not empowered to deal with the elephant in the room. Fares are far too high and the service is less than what is needed.
The elephant that needs to be addressed is BC Ferries’ huge debt load and the upcoming capital expenditures that are needed to maintain a viable BC Ferries system for the good of all of B.C.’s economy.
Unless and until the province recognizes that their nearly 12-year experiment with BC Ferries as a nominally independent corporation has been and is an abject failure and repatriate BC Ferries to more direct governmental control, covering the capital costs of our marine highways as part of the provincial highways budget, we should not expect relief in fares or service levels.
Jef Keighley, Halfmoon Bay
