BC Ferries has added a later round-trip sailing to the Langdale-Horseshoe Bay route following an outpouring of anger from residents about a revised schedule that had introduced earlier last sailings for the month of June.
The addition puts the last sailing of the day out of Langdale at 8:20 p.m. instead of 6:30 p.m. and the final return trip from the Lower Mainland will leave at 9:15 p.m. instead of 7:25 p.m.
B.C. Ferries announced the change on June 5 and it comes into effect immediately.
The later sailings apply from Sunday to Friday. The adjustment means there are now seven sailings six days a week.
The company is increasing service on the route “to better match capacity with demand and meet the community’s needs,” the company said in a release. “BC Ferries remains committed to ensuring coastal communities have reliable access to essential goods and transportation for residents, emergency personnel and health care workers.”
Passenger capacity remains limited to 50 per cent and customers are still allowed to remain in their vehicles during sailings on all car decks. The vehicle capacity of the vessel is not restricted.
In an email to Coast Reporter, spokeswoman Deborah Marshall addressed another issue that residents have discussed lately on social media – priority boarding for Sunshine Coast residents.
When the province first declared a state of emergency in March, Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth included the power to “direct passenger and car ferry operators, in consultation with the province, [to] provide minimum service levels and priority access for residents, and essential goods and workers.”
When asked whether priority boarding was in effect, Marshall said “residents of the Sunshine Coast just need to tell the ticket agent they are residents. They don’t need to show ID. Please keep in mind that there may still be overloads, as the majority of travellers on the Langdale route are residents.”
Local governments, residents and the Sechelt and District Chamber of Commerce have been clamouring for a change to the revised schedule, which took effect June 3 to accommodate the resumption of service on the Horseshoe Bay-Nanaimo Route and was supposed to last for the month of June.
On June 4, Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) chair Lori Pratt, Gibsons Mayor Bill Beamish and Sechelt Mayor Darnelda Siegers raised the issue with Premier John Horgan in a phone call scheduled for local governments.
The previous day, the Sechelt Chamber wrote to Transportation Minister Claire Trevena about how reduced service levels would mean “continued hardship” for residents and businesses on the Sunshine Coast “who depend on the tourist sector for their very survival.”
“The residents and businesses on the Coast have been isolated for months and now,
with the new schedule, continue to be unfairly segregated.”
On May 28, SCRD directors voted to urge BC Ferries to increase sailings. The matter was raised June 2 at Gibsons council and on Wednesday, Sechelt council voted to send a letter to the province requesting an increase in sailings.
At the June 3 meeting, Siegers said the schedule change was a concern for people in Powell River because suppliers would no longer be able to do a round trip from Vancouver in one day. Coun. Matt McLean called it “a slap in the face” to residents, business owners and tourists, adding that local delivery companies would struggle with return trips to Vancouver.
BC Ferries said in its June 5 release that it was “monitoring usage of the additional sailings to ensure excess capacity, if any, is not placing workers, travellers or communities at unnecessary risk.” Due to the impact of COVID-19, it said, “the company must take measures to protect the public interest in the provision of safe, reliable service to British Columbians in a financially sustainable manner. As a result, not all service will resume as it was prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
