[TC Letters to the Editor] Let’s make big plans for large new ferries

Rentlar, 10 months ago

Don’t stop there Matthew! We’ve got to go bigger! We need a 50km long rail bridge built over the water from Vancouver to Nanaimo, then another service extending to Victoria!

And since you appear to like boats so much, let’s put a 200m boat on rails, just because we can! With a casino, free drinks and everything!

oak00, 10 months ago

I’m just posting funny letters to the editor in the Times Colonist. I should figure out a better title format but it doesn’t let you edit in the apps as far as I can tell

EDIT: nevermind voyager does

TheWaterGod, 10 months ago

The premise of the “fleet having reached capacity” feels a little flawed to me. Not necessarily wrong, but (in my uneducated opinion) I think it’s a fleet management problem rather than a capacity problem. There only seems to be a capacity problem during a long weekend/holiday or when a ferry breaks down. There’s not a five sailing wait on a Tuesday in October, you know?

The last time I took the ferry, they loaded a bunch of semitrucks with us. Maybe they should have passenger only trips and cargo only trips instead? I know Seaspan runs the cargo-only ferries from Swartz Bay. Maybe BC ferries should do the same thing?

I’d also almost argue against more onboard amenities. The ferries are part of the highway system and should focus on getting you reliably from point A to point B. A restaurant is a good idea, but leave the shops and touristy things for when you get to the Island/Mainland.

corsicanguppy, 10 months ago

The ferries are part of the highway system

BCFerries is a Tourism Cruise Line, now. It hasn’t been part of the Highways system since Premier Campbell carved it off to save blue-voting in-lander money. Go see their ads.

Unfortunately, BCFerries is suffering from some problems as a result of being heavily user-pay and a public-private-partnership system, notably a goal of high profitability, a CEO Pay affliction, lack of reliability and effectiveness, and a complete loss of the proverbial plot.

The current Celebration boats have issues with high winds that the Queens and Spirits do not, among so many other problems. We can derive new boats from those solid workhorses.

Bigger boats would allow for labour consolidation, which could help, but the constant loss of a boat for repairs with no spares is bad management – and all but negligent for a service as essential as it was when it was part of the highway system and managed completely internally. But bigger boats can’t run as efficiently during times of lower usage.

It’s time to bring it back into the fold, spend the money we’ve ‘saved’ (squandered) on this el-cheapo setup, and provide proper capacity – and continuity plans!

Someone, 10 months ago

The current Celebration boats have issues with high winds that the Queens and Spirits do not,

This is incorrect, the one area the coastal class outshines the rest of the (major size) fleet is heavy weather. They have so much power that’s available at both ends and there’s no need to turn around. That means they can safely operate out of Tsawwassen in almost 10kn higher winds than any of the conventional (single ended) ships. The only reason they dont end up sailing is that the other ships are tied up in the way.

among so many other problems. We can derive new boats from those solid workhorses.

All the other problems are valid criticisms. They were designed based on European vehicle specs (if you’ve ever noticed they only load 1 lane of semis at a time vs the spirits loading 2 lanes). Many parts are only available from Europe, or even worse custom order from Europe (the company that built the elevators went out of business between the time the Renaissance and Celebration were built, meaning there are no spare parts). The propellers were designed too close to water level causing major vibration, which in turn is undoubtedly exacerbating every other problem.

plaguesandbacon, 10 months ago

Is this copy pasta or did you actually sign your post?

Either way, this is a terrible idea. Cut out all amenities, get smaller/faster ships and stop hiring “casual” workers.

If the ferries weren’t run so poorly, all of the pain points would be a none issue

BlameThePeacock, 10 months ago

How do larger Ferries make sense when the vast majority of sailings over a year aren’t full?

If you only need the capacity at specific times it probably makes more sense to have additional ferries that sit idle most of the time rather than spending money on fuel for empty space going back and forth all the time.