Cars lined up along the side of a road through the trees as far as youc can see
Transportation

Ferry cancellations on the mid-West Coast became more frequent starting this spring

Originally published on qathet Living

Editor’s note: Tensions boiled over at a recent Sunshine Coast ferry advisory committee meeting (FAC), and a woman said she would ‘take a gun’ to everyone’ if there weren’t changes.  

Each quarter, BC Ferries releases thorough data about ferry cancellations on its website (bcferries.com/in-the-community/resources). Stats are currently available until June of this year; the July through September stats will be released as a full data set in the fall.  

Here’s what we know about the past year, from July 2022 to June 2023:

On the Earls Cove-Saltery Bay route:

Six sailings were cancelled in April to June of this year. (None were cancelled in the previous three quarters.)

That represents 0.4% of all sailings.  

All of those sailings were cancelled due to crewing problems

Langdale cancellations, which affect all trips between qathet and Vancouver, are not listed here, but are among the highest in the system.

On the Little River (Comox)
– PR Westview route:

22 sailings were cancelled in April to June of this year. (None were cancelled in the previous three quarters.)

That represents 3% of all sailings

18 of those were cancelled for crewing problems, and four for mechanical problems.

On the Blubber Bay (Texada) 
– PR Westview route:

16 sailings were cancelled in April to June of this year. (None were cancelled in the previous three quarters.)

That represents 0.5% of all sailings

Three were cancelled for crewing problems; eight for mechanical problems, and five for other problems

System-wide, on all routes on BC Ferries in April to June:

665 sailings were cancelled, out of a total 46,877 planned sailings

That represents 1.42% of all sailings

Note: Ferry cancellations are just one way travel has been unpredictable on BC Ferries this year. Others include the July problems with the website; late sailings that can jimmy connections; and heavy traffic causing multiple sailing waits. 

Top image credit: The wait at Earl’s Cove Terminal can stretch far up the highway. Ferry trouble is impacting tourism. – Pieta Woolley, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

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