BC Ferries

[Dane]

Its the Alberni; she is one-of above the water line despite technically sharing a class with four other boats.

[Blue Bus Fan]

Lomaiviti Princess V, ex-Queen of Nanaimo, heading to Suva, Fiji from Richmond, BC , Canada:


Lomaiviti Princess V by Blue Bus Fan, on Flickr


Lomaiviti Princess V by Blue Bus Fan, on Flickr


Lomaiviti Princess V by Blue Bus Fan, on Flickr

[roeco]

Looks like Lady Rose Marine out of Port Alberni is looking at providing car ferry service to Bamfield in the very near future, Also they are interested in purchasing a 16 car ferry due to be retired soon (Mv Nimpkish) Im thinking...and a good choice  as a back up car ferry and freight ship! 

[cprted]

Queen of Burnaby sold at auction.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bids-ahoy-queen-of-burnaby-auction-fetches-653k-for-53-year-old-ferry-1.4476055

[roeco]

Today their were some pretty severe winds on the BC Coast cancelling many routes for the better part of the Am.

[Thomasw]

Queen of Surrey hit a berting structure at Langdale and was stuck with passengers and vehicles on board for 10 hours until Transport Canada gave the all clear for two tugboats to push it into the berth to unload. If has been pulled from service and B.C. ferries has promised an investigation.

 

https://bc.ctvnews.ca/mobile/bc-ferries-passengers-allowed-to-disembark-10-hours-after-accident-1.4352394

[Thomasw]

The queen of Surrey is back in service and was able to take some pictures of it and the queen of Coquitlam at Langdale terminal

[Articulated]

6 hours ago, Thomasw said:

The queen of Surrey is back in service and was able to take some pictures of it and the queen of Coquitlam at Langdale terminal

Queen of Surrey returned to service after her mishap in late April btw.

The cause of the incident was ruled as "crew error" due to not following the appropriate checklist during arrival: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-ferries-langdale-crash-report-1.5257637

[Thomasw]

1 hour ago, Articulated said:

Queen of Surrey returned to service after her mishap in late April btw.

The cause of the incident was ruled as "crew error" due to not following the appropriate checklist during arrival: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-ferries-langdale-crash-report-1.5257637

Ya, I figured as much. The vessel was hardly damaged. It had just not been reported active yet.

[Articulated]

Island Sky was renamed today to Malaspina Sky, in order to clear the name for the soon-to-be-arriving Island class of minor vessels.

https://www.prpeak.com/news/powell-river-earls-cove-ferry-renamed-malaspina-sky-1.23987551

[InfiNorth]

BC Ferries has received its first two Hybrid-Electric ferries at Ogden Point in Victoria. This excites me a lot. BC Ferries has a lot of criticism directed towards it, loads of it valid, but they certainly are doing good things. What impresses me most about these two vessels is that they aren't going to service the "showcase" routes - Southern Gulf Islands, Mainland, and Gabriola. Instead, they're heading up-island to Alert Bay and Texada Island. For those who don't want to have to visit the news website, here is a photo:

[InfiNorth]

Ran across a cool little tidbit of history in the 1978 VIA Rail Canada Timetable (credit due to @Urban Sky for providing this incredible resource) - back in the late 70's, BC Ferries operated to Prince Rupert all way from Tsawwassen on a three day rotation. I'm curious why this was. I do know that 1976 marked the end of Kelsey Bay's years as the terminus for the North Coast ferry service as the highway was opened to Port Hardy, so why did BC Ferries bother with operating all the way to Tsawwassen when it added a full day of sailing time to the passage?

[Articulated]

Major changes to BC Ferries service as a result of COVID-19 and the 80% drop in ridership across the system. The announced changes came into effect today (April 4) and consist of:

• Route 1 (Tsawwassen - Swartz Bay) will be reduced to four round trips a day, with only a single vessel on the route at a time. Spirit of British Columbia will do 07:00 and 11:00 departures from Tsawwassen and 09:00 and 13:00 departures from Swartz Bay, while Spirit of Vancouver Island will do 15:00 and 19:00 departures from Swartz Bay and 17:00 and 21:00 departures from Tsawwassen.
• Route 2 (Departure Bay - Horseshoe Bay) has been completely cancelled. Departure Bay terminal will be closed, and all traffic from the mainland to Nanaimo will need to go on route 30 via Tsawwassen.
• Route 3 (Horseshoe Bay - Langdale) reduced to 6 round trips a day.
• Route 9 (Tsawwassen - Southern Gulf Islands) will have only 1 vessel operate, based out of Swartz Bay. Long Harbour terminal on Salt Spring Island will be closed.
• Route 12 (Mill Bay - Brentwood Bay) has been fully cancelled.
• Route 30 (Tsawwassen - Duke Point) will only allow public access on half the sailings (those performed by Coastal Inspiration). Queen of Alberni will perform additional cargo-only sailings on Monday-Friday.
• The northern routes (10, 10S, 11) will continue on the off-peak schedule for the forseeable future, with no direct Port Hardy-Bella Coola service.

Details: https://www.bcferries.com/current_conditions/travel-advisory.html

[InfiNorth]

BC Ferries will be resuming partial services as BC begins to lift its restrictions. 

https://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/b-c-ferries-to-add-sailings-starting-may-15-1.24131513

Despite this, they are asking people not to travel. Seems a bit counter intuitive... if you want people to stay home, especially during a pandemic, increasing the number of sailings of a holiday weekend really sends the wrong message, especially considering that commercial traffic should theoretically be even lower than normal.

https://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/travel-on-long-weekend-only-if-essential-b-c-ferries-1.24133754

[roeco]

I don't think their gonna run the reg Horseshoe Bay to Departure Bay scheduling ...looks like they might be tweeking with it before June relaunch.

[Dane]

On 5/17/2020 at 9:41 PM, roeco said:

I don't think their gonna run the reg Horseshoe Bay to Departure Bay scheduling ...looks like they might be tweeking with it before June relaunch.

Agree, I doubt that the "vessel share" with the Langdale route will continue, at least until "normal" returns. 

From time to time I need to book "corporate travel" (which is actually Government) and the lack of capacity on Route 1 is very problematic. No doubt a small number of people are making unneeded trips, but, these recent times show just how much BC Ferries moves people & goods that are of the utmost importance for our day-to-day lives. 

[Articulated]

Forgot to post this on here, but the first two Island class vessels entered service earlier this month:

• Island Discovery entered service on June 10th on route 18 (Powell River - Texada Island), directly replacing North Island Princess.
• Island Aurora entered service one week later on June 17th on route 25 (Port McNeill - Alert Bay - Sointula), allowing Quadra Queen II to become a full-time relief vessel. This completes a series of vessel shuffling for the replacement of Howe Sound Queen, which retired back in June 2019.