 BC Ferries sailings cancelled again Mechanical issues on the Queen of New Westminster have forced BC Ferries to cancel sailings between the mainland and Vancouver Island for the third day in a row.Commentsview comments in forum You need to be a member of CKA and be logged into the site, to comment on news. |
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These people had better get their shit together before the rush back to the Mainland on Monday otherwise, I can see the ferry terminals on the Island starting to look like downtown Montreal by Monday evening!
They won't.
This kind of service or lack of is becomming the norm. If they'd spent their money on keeping the fleet going instead of Starbuck franchises and stalls full of cheap chinese made trinkets for the tourist at the terminals we probably wouldn't be seeing this headline every couple of weeks.
It's time that the Government admitted they're experiment in making the ferry corporation a private enterprise that uses public money so they didn't have to reveal the financial records.................. a dismal failure.
Much like Christie Clucks tenure a Premier.
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...
BC Ferries is the maritime equivalent of Air Canada.
QFT. Haha, at least when you live in the Lower Mainland you can escape the other epic disaster which is the Canadian airline industry through a friendly place called Bellingham.
I'm planning to go to Vegas for my 21st birthday in a few months, and I can save almost $200 driving to Bellingham (which from where I live in Richmond is a 45 min drive in good border line-ups) instead of YVR.
If you're adventurous and do SeaTac you can save more (flew to DC in February roundtrip for $340 compared to $900 out of YVR).
BC Ferries as an entity is a complete joke.
Compared to the US ferry (MV Coho) to Victoria from Port Angeles the BC Ferries are the very height of comfort, ease of service, and safety. Seriously, I will absolutely not be surprised some day when this old bucket of rust founders and kills a few hundred people:
This old thing has been in service since 1959 and is probably 25 years overdue for the breakers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Coho
It must be terrible for those on the Mainland, being cut off and isolated like that.
Maybe they'll be tweaked enough to resurect the idea of building a series of bridges to Vancouver Island.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strait_of_ ... e_proposal
A proposed modern road bridge connecting the Greater Vancouver Regional District to Vancouver Island in the manner of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, has been discussed for decades, ever since the commencement of service by BC Ferries. Some crossing design suggestions include a partly floating, partly submerged tunnel to allow ship traffic to move freely. The hurricane-force windstorms of Typhoon Freda in 1962 and of December 2006 call into question the safety of such a project.
Proponents of the bridge argue that a reliable link to Vancouver Island from mainland British Columbia will increase tourism and growth on Vancouver Island. Opponents argue that construction of a bridge will result in further urbanization of the island and that the area's environment will be negatively affected by construction and the increase in tourism. Other potential problems are the width and depth of the strait and the soft consistency of the strait floor, as well as high seismic activity in the Vancouver Island region, and the fact that the strait is heavily used as a navigation channel. The strait is far deeper than any bridged body of water in the world.
Former B.C. cabinet minister Dr. Patrick McGeer, a research neuroscientist and a science advocate, has repeatedly advanced the proposal in recent decades. In a CKNW news item broadcast in August 2008, McGeer said he thinks the idea just needs "a visionary politician" to support it. McGeer still has the conceptual model of the bridge that was displayed at Expo 86.[not in citation given] The idea has formal opposition in the form of an Islands Trust policy banning the building of any bridges or tunnels connecting the Gulf Islands to the Mainland or Vancouver Island.
BC Ferries as an entity is a complete joke.
Compared to the US ferry (MV Coho) to Victoria from Port Angeles the BC Ferries are the very height of comfort, ease of service, and safety. Seriously, I will absolutely not be surprised some day when this old bucket of rust founders and kills a few hundred people:
This old thing has been in service since 1959 and is probably 25 years overdue for the breakers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Coho
Well, the Coho is also a good example of what we need though. A ninety minute run doesn't need the expensive creature comforts that you find on he ferries. I'd say go ahead if the ferries weren't constantly in the red.
Just like the fact a Dehavilland Beaver can fly you from Victiria to Vancouver instead of a leer jet, a more basic ferry service could be used. The smaller routes do it with basic ferries.
That and the should be converted to gas instead of diesel!
It must be terrible for those on the Mainland, being cut off and isolated like that.
Maybe they'll be tweaked enough to resurect the idea of building a series of bridges to Vancouver Island.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strait_of_ ... e_proposal
A proposed modern road bridge connecting the Greater Vancouver Regional District to Vancouver Island in the manner of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, has been discussed for decades, ever since the commencement of service by BC Ferries. Some crossing design suggestions include a partly floating, partly submerged tunnel to allow ship traffic to move freely. The hurricane-force windstorms of Typhoon Freda in 1962 and of December 2006 call into question the safety of such a project.
Proponents of the bridge argue that a reliable link to Vancouver Island from mainland British Columbia will increase tourism and growth on Vancouver Island. Opponents argue that construction of a bridge will result in further urbanization of the island and that the area's environment will be negatively affected by construction and the increase in tourism. Other potential problems are the width and depth of the strait and the soft consistency of the strait floor, as well as high seismic activity in the Vancouver Island region, and the fact that the strait is heavily used as a navigation channel. The strait is far deeper than any bridged body of water in the world.
Former B.C. cabinet minister Dr. Patrick McGeer, a research neuroscientist and a science advocate, has repeatedly advanced the proposal in recent decades. In a CKNW news item broadcast in August 2008, McGeer said he thinks the idea just needs "a visionary politician" to support it. McGeer still has the conceptual model of the bridge that was displayed at Expo 86.[not in citation given] The idea has formal opposition in the form of an Islands Trust policy banning the building of any bridges or tunnels connecting the Gulf Islands to the Mainland or Vancouver Island.
The hell with that. There are few interested in being closer to Toronto west.
It must be terrible for those on the Mainland, being cut off and isolated like that.
Maybe they'll be tweaked enough to resurect the idea of building a series of bridges to Vancouver Island.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strait_of_ ... e_proposal
A proposed modern road bridge connecting the Greater Vancouver Regional District to Vancouver Island in the manner of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, has been discussed for decades, ever since the commencement of service by BC Ferries. Some crossing design suggestions include a partly floating, partly submerged tunnel to allow ship traffic to move freely. The hurricane-force windstorms of Typhoon Freda in 1962 and of December 2006 call into question the safety of such a project.
Proponents of the bridge argue that a reliable link to Vancouver Island from mainland British Columbia will increase tourism and growth on Vancouver Island. Opponents argue that construction of a bridge will result in further urbanization of the island and that the area's environment will be negatively affected by construction and the increase in tourism. Other potential problems are the width and depth of the strait and the soft consistency of the strait floor, as well as high seismic activity in the Vancouver Island region, and the fact that the strait is heavily used as a navigation channel. The strait is far deeper than any bridged body of water in the world.
Former B.C. cabinet minister Dr. Patrick McGeer, a research neuroscientist and a science advocate, has repeatedly advanced the proposal in recent decades. In a CKNW news item broadcast in August 2008, McGeer said he thinks the idea just needs "a visionary politician" to support it. McGeer still has the conceptual model of the bridge that was displayed at Expo 86.[not in citation given] The idea has formal opposition in the form of an Islands Trust policy banning the building of any bridges or tunnels connecting the Gulf Islands to the Mainland or Vancouver Island.
This does seem to be an area where they do it better in the US - ie Washington. Washington is smart and has a fully socialist system, instead of a pretend capitalist one.
As for bridge/tunnel, take a look at Westmanguy's post. And what's left out of that consideration is that the main Vancouver to Vancouver Island routes make money. It's all the small routes, and the Port Hardy to Prince Rupert routes that are draining the system. Too bad, because that latter route is like a mini cruise for low cost. See whales, beautiful scenery, etc, and you have your car when you get to your destination.
The actual distance from the Mainland to the Island is not far, you'd have a new suburbia for Vancouver workers.