BC Ferries is suspending the ‘L’ run, where one of the Horseshoe Bay-Nanaimo ferries would serve the Langdale route for a couple of trips each day and vice versa.
Deborah Marshall of BC Ferries said it’s making the change to reduce the risk of “cross-contamination” of communities and crews by ensuring that as much as possible ships serve only one route.
Marshall said the change, which was set to go into force March 25, will not mean a reduction in the number of round trips on Route 3, but it will mean the last two trips of the day will sail at new times.
Details were expected to be included in a service notice due out on the afternoon of March 24.
“Unfortunately, what this means is that we won’t have that 5:30 p.m. sailing from Horseshoe Bay, but I think at this point a lot of the commuters are also staying home,” said Marshall, who added that overall traffic on the BC Ferries system is down 50 per cent from typical March numbers.
BC Ferries had already announced the cancellation of the extra trips planned for the Easter long weekend.
“We’re discouraging any non-essential travel,” Marshall said. “We want to be able to keep our service going because it’s obviously essential to be moving goods, groceries and medical supplies back and forth.”
BC Ferries also announced that as of March 25 it’s suspending the pilot project providing direct service between Texada Island and Comox on Wednesday and Saturdays during some Powell River-Comox runs.
BC Ferries COVID-19 travel advisories are available online at: www.bcferries.com/current_conditions/travel-advisory.html
