Every summer, Cortes Island’s four grocery stores, and the store on Refuge Cove, lose business because of long ferry waits. Truckers do not like to transport frozen goods, when they do not know how long they will wait before boarding. Every store experiences shortages of produce, dairy, and meats. As increasing numbers of Cortes residents shop in Campbell River, the ferry waits grow even longer. At last fall’s Ferry Advisory Committee meeting, the stores asked BC Ferries to provide assured loading for commercial vehicles coming to Cortes Island. It’s not official, one commercial vehicle a day may receive priority loading.
Continue reading Possible Resolution: Assured Loading For One Commercial Vehicle A DayTag Archives: Campbell River-Quadra Ferry
Video Of BC's New E-Ferries
BC Ferries released a video of its new e-ferries being unloaded at the Breakwater District at Ogden Point, Victoria, on January 18, 2020. The transport ship that carried them from Europe partially submerged, so the two Island Class ships could float off. Tugboats guided them through the Inner Harbour and under the Johnston Street Bridge to Point Hope Maritime.
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Coming To BC Ferries' Campbell River – Quadra Run
The first of BC Ferries’ new Island Class hybrid-electric vessels arrived in Victoria last Saturday. Their engines are currently powered by a combination of electric, with 800 kWh of battery energy storage capacity, and low sulphur diesel. When the cost of energy storage becomes more economical, BC ferries plans to upgrade to 2,000 kWh and go fully electric. Half a dozen electric ferries are expected to be in service by 2022. Two of these sleek new vessels are slated for our area as one of many improvements coming to BC Ferries’ Campbell River – Quadra run.
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Assured Loading For Commercial Vehicles
By Roy L Hales
Twenty or more years ago, BC Ferries gave preference to trucks delivering food to Cortes Island. The volume of traffic has increased since then, especially during the summer months, but this service is no longer available. The truck servicing Gorge Harbour Marina Resort missed 17 out of 19 ferries this summer, while watching cars that arrived more than a half an hour later drive onto the ferry. At the October 25, 2019 Quadra/Cortes FAC Meeting, Bill Dougan, General Manager of Gorge Harbour asked BC Ferries to provide assured loading for commercial vehicles coming to Cortes Island.
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Returning the Quadra-Cortes FAC To Normality
If the posts in the Tideline are an indication, the October 25 Quadra-Cortes Ferry Advisory Commission (FAC) meeting dealt with a potentially explosive situation. Our Regional Director, Chief Kevin Peacey and former FAC President Paul Ryan were among those who published their views. When the meeting was finally convened in Gorge Hall, one of the BC ferry executives stated the previous meeting (June 7, 2019) had gone off the rails. Committee members subsequently exchanged something like 130 emails. A significant portion of the October 25 meeting was devoted to discussing ways of returning the Quadra-Cortes FAC to normality.
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