[martin14]

Freakinoldguy Freakinoldguy:

ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:

Why would you want to move to Esquimalt?

Say what you will but it's still a step up from Vic West.

ummm, being a step up from Vic West is really not difficult.

[ShepherdsDog]

I lived in Colwood for most of the time I was in Victoria. Had a couple of friends from Oak bay, one of whom was Japanese and the other a Sikh. More an enclave based on money now than ethnicity I thinkt....that and old farts who tried to fake a British accent.

[Gunnair]

ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:

I lived in Colwood for most of the time I was in Victoria. Had a couple of friends from Oak bay, one of whom was Japanese and the other a Sikh. More an enclave based on money now than ethnicity I thinkt....that and old farts who tried to fake a British accent.

Langford is where it's at these days, but the crawl is beyond belief now and getting worse with every new home going in.

[ShepherdsDog]

Going to school, I took the bus usually...one transfer I think. Before that I just got a ride to F jetty most of the time, if I hadn't crashed on my rack...some nights after the bar it was better that way(honking in your aunt and uncle's garbage can didn't win you any brownie points). Occasionally I biked it. We had one PO who lived in Belmont Park who use to jog to work....nuts. Once I was at UVic I usually just spent the whole day there at the SUB or a library, or just shooting the shit, even if I didn't have a full day of classes.

[bootlegga]

Gunnair Gunnair:

BC Ferries is the maritime equivalent of Air Canada.

Nope, Air Canada is privatized!

[bootlegga]

westmanguy westmanguy:

BC Ferries as an entity is a complete joke. Does anyone else hate the food options on the ship? Very overpriced White Spot or grease-infested Americanized Chinese noodle boxes...

And its so expensive to cross by vehicle! I go to this annual conference in Victoria in February via Tswassen-Schwartz Bay and it is reasonable if you're a walk one ($14/one way). However, the Island definitely has to be suffering tourism wise. My parents are a classic example. Before they moved here, on a trip out here my dad and brother did a trek from Horseshoe Bay-Departure Bay to Nanaimo and drove to Tofino for a few days and then we did a trip to a friend of my brother's on Texada Island, and then over to Powell River and down the sunshine coast back to Vancouver (which is a few more ferries). This was almost a decade ago and its was hundreds of dollars in ferry crossings. My dad would love to go back, but the costs are too high. Even Victoria is like $60+ oneway for a car.

The employees and management are overpaid, its an overbloated bureaucracy, and we all have to subsidize the costs of sailings to small booney islands with low populations.

I'd love a bridge, but as I discovered on a BC Transport report, its absolutely unfeasible. Its far to windy in this area for a bridge and a tunnel of some sorts would be possible, but its very deep, not soft sediment like the London-Paris tunnel, and would be hundreds of billions.

So ferries are the only way, but there has to be someway to reform this abysmal institution...

We also subsidize the inland ferry service - all of which is free (or was the last time I took one at Nelson).

As for the cost of the ferries, well, they charge what the market will bear - less in the more heavily travelled routes like Tswassen-Schwartz Bay. I bet you could hike prices 10, even 15% and the summer tourists would still pay it. I know I would.

But you can save if you take a bike or motorcycle. Personally, $49.25 + $15 per adult one-way isn't that big a deal when you're making a trip you might make only a few times in your life.

http://www.bcferries.com/files/fares/pd ... _Fares.pdf

I didn't notice if they have it or not, but they should have some sort of multiple trip card that people can buy at a discounted price (10 trips for the price of 9 or something like that).

[andyt]

The two main routes already make money. Nothing needs to be done there. The smaller Island routes - how much do we want to facilitate movement between them and economic development? Same with the Port Hardy/Prince Rupert route - do we want to leave the coast more isolated than it already is.

WAC Bennet provincialized (why don't we have a proper term for this) the ferries because he realized we needed affordable, reliable links over the Strait of Georgia, just as we needed aggressive road building in the rest of the province to further development. That's still true. So the ferries should be funded out of the highways budget, provide a basic service, and users should pay some of the cost.

[westmanguy]

bootlegga bootlegga:

westmanguy westmanguy:

BC Ferries as an entity is a complete joke. Does anyone else hate the food options on the ship? Very overpriced White Spot or grease-infested Americanized Chinese noodle boxes...

And its so expensive to cross by vehicle! I go to this annual conference in Victoria in February via Tswassen-Schwartz Bay and it is reasonable if you're a walk one ($14/one way). However, the Island definitely has to be suffering tourism wise. My parents are a classic example. Before they moved here, on a trip out here my dad and brother did a trek from Horseshoe Bay-Departure Bay to Nanaimo and drove to Tofino for a few days and then we did a trip to a friend of my brother's on Texada Island, and then over to Powell River and down the sunshine coast back to Vancouver (which is a few more ferries). This was almost a decade ago and its was hundreds of dollars in ferry crossings. My dad would love to go back, but the costs are too high. Even Victoria is like $60+ oneway for a car.

The employees and management are overpaid, its an overbloated bureaucracy, and we all have to subsidize the costs of sailings to small booney islands with low populations.

I'd love a bridge, but as I discovered on a BC Transport report, its absolutely unfeasible. Its far to windy in this area for a bridge and a tunnel of some sorts would be possible, but its very deep, not soft sediment like the London-Paris tunnel, and would be hundreds of billions.

So ferries are the only way, but there has to be someway to reform this abysmal institution...

We also subsidize the inland ferry service - all of which is free (or was the last time I took one at Nelson).

As for the cost of the ferries, well, they charge what the market will bear - less in the more heavily travelled routes like Tswassen-Schwartz Bay. I bet you could hike prices 10, even 15% and the summer tourists would still pay it. I know I would.

But you can save if you take a bike or motorcycle. Personally, $49.25 + $15 per adult one-way isn't that big a deal when you're making a trip you might make only a few times in your life.

http://www.bcferries.com/files/fares/pd ... _Fares.pdf

I didn't notice if they have it or not, but they should have some sort of multiple trip card that people can buy at a discounted price (10 trips for the price of 9 or something like that).

No, I'm sorry, it *is* too expensive. To drive over its $130 round trip. I definitely want to go back to Tofino someday, but it'll be a long ways in the future when I'm out of school and in a career.

Something I've always wondered. Why can't they have a 'no frills' ferry fleet that would reduce costs and be bare bones?

I mean a fleet where you literally just drive your car on, park, and the only seating is in your car, and there is a small concession/washroom area if you want some food, but you just sit in your car for the 1h or so until you arrive. No grandiose over-the-top passenger decks like they have now.

Don't get me wrong, they're nice. But I don't need a beautiful passenger deck, get a ship that can carry more cars with less frills and at a cheaper price.

[westmanguy]

bootlegga bootlegga:

westmanguy westmanguy:

BC Ferries as an entity is a complete joke. Does anyone else hate the food options on the ship? Very overpriced White Spot or grease-infested Americanized Chinese noodle boxes...

And its so expensive to cross by vehicle! I go to this annual conference in Victoria in February via Tswassen-Schwartz Bay and it is reasonable if you're a walk one ($14/one way). However, the Island definitely has to be suffering tourism wise. My parents are a classic example. Before they moved here, on a trip out here my dad and brother did a trek from Horseshoe Bay-Departure Bay to Nanaimo and drove to Tofino for a few days and then we did a trip to a friend of my brother's on Texada Island, and then over to Powell River and down the sunshine coast back to Vancouver (which is a few more ferries). This was almost a decade ago and its was hundreds of dollars in ferry crossings. My dad would love to go back, but the costs are too high. Even Victoria is like $60+ oneway for a car.

The employees and management are overpaid, its an overbloated bureaucracy, and we all have to subsidize the costs of sailings to small booney islands with low populations.

I'd love a bridge, but as I discovered on a BC Transport report, its absolutely unfeasible. Its far to windy in this area for a bridge and a tunnel of some sorts would be possible, but its very deep, not soft sediment like the London-Paris tunnel, and would be hundreds of billions.

So ferries are the only way, but there has to be someway to reform this abysmal institution...

We also subsidize the inland ferry service - all of which is free (or was the last time I took one at Nelson).

As for the cost of the ferries, well, they charge what the market will bear - less in the more heavily travelled routes like Tswassen-Schwartz Bay. I bet you could hike prices 10, even 15% and the summer tourists would still pay it. I know I would.

But you can save if you take a bike or motorcycle. Personally, $49.25 + $15 per adult one-way isn't that big a deal when you're making a trip you might make only a few times in your life.

http://www.bcferries.com/files/fares/pd ... _Fares.pdf

I didn't notice if they have it or not, but they should have some sort of multiple trip card that people can buy at a discounted price (10 trips for the price of 9 or something like that).

No, I'm sorry, it *is* too expensive. To drive over its $130 round trip. I definitely want to go back to Tofino someday, but it'll be a long ways in the future when I'm out of school and in a career.

Something I've always wondered. Why can't they have a 'no frills' ferry fleet that would reduce costs and be bare bones?

I mean a fleet where you literally just drive your car on, park, and the only seating is in your car, and there is a small concession/washroom area if you want some food, but you just sit in your car for the 1h or so until you arrive. No grandiose over-the-top passenger decks like they have now.

Don't get me wrong, they're nice. But I don't need a beautiful passenger deck, get a ship that can carry more cars with less frills and at a cheaper price.

[Gunnair]

bootlegga bootlegga:

Gunnair Gunnair:

BC Ferries is the maritime equivalent of Air Canada.

Nope, Air Canada is privatized!

BC Ferries is half privatized.