Tag Archives: Horseshoe Bay-Langdale run

Think ferry meetings are scary? Ha. Try City Council.

Editor’s Note: On February 3, 2024, BC Ferries held community drop-in meetings on Cortes and Quadra Islands. There were 25 and 34 participants, respectively. A big concern on Cortes is ‘assured loading.’ BC Ferries stated they need to monitor the effect of using two ferries between Campbell River and Quadra first, but will reevaluate loading procedures after the summer. The first steps towards full electrification of the Campbell River run (design and BC Hydro upgrades) have begun. The design work is expected to take a year. Some sailings on the Campbell River – Quadra route were cancelled because of a lack of crew members and BC Ferries is in the midst of the biggest recruitment campaign in its history.

Originally published on qathet Living

For the past several weeks, Kim Barton-Bridges has tried to figure out when – or whether – BC Ferries executives planned to come to Powell River for the regularly-scheduled spring Northern Sunshine Coast Ferry Advisory Committee meeting, which she chairs. 

The last one was September 21, at the Town Centre Hotel. That one was a little raucous, because some locals were angry about a summer of waiting for hours in hot parking lots, a reservation system that had failed, the cost of traveling, and sailing cancellations due to staffing problems and occasionally technical problems. Although ultimately, Kim noted, everyone at the meeting was relatively respectful. 

Continue reading Think ferry meetings are scary? Ha. Try City Council.

Changes coming to the local ferries in 2027, and directions for the years beyond

BC Ferries announced a series of changes coming in 2027,  including new vessels for the Campbell River and Cortes Island routes and the next steps towards electrifying the fleet.

“We’ve received approval from the ferries commissioner to procure  four new vessels, hybrid electric, and they will bring new capacity into the system. This is great news. In addition to that,  as part of this capital investment that will be electrifying, or putting a lot more power into, two routes that are going to eventually be able to run these hybrid battery electric vessels in the way that they’re built. For the purposes of the investment being announced today, it’s just  two routes, Nanaimo to Gabriola and  Campbell River to Quadra that will be serviced with this capacity to actually run these vessels in their electric form,” explained Nicolas Jimenez, CEO of BC Ferries.

Continue reading Changes coming to the local ferries in 2027, and directions for the years beyond