Category Archives: Transportation

Transportation

Four fully electric BC Ferries vessels scheduled for 2027

BC Ferries (BCF) is expanding its number of Island Class hybrid-electric vessels, with four more contracted to Damen Shipyards Group (Damen) as per their Jan. 16 press release.

While the six Island Class ships currently operating on various routes across the province use both electric and diesel power, the future ships are designed to run solely on battery, with the diesel engine as a fail-safe.

Two routes are slated to receive a pair of the future ships to operate the respective connections in tandem: Nanaimo-Gabriola and Campbell River-Quadra (Quathiaski Cove). Currently older versions of Island Class vessels operate on these routes. In contrast, the newest ships will be built to run powered solely by rapid-charging technology that will be constructed at the terminals to coincide with the 2027 deployment. The Island Class electrification project is estimated to reduce emissions by 10,000 tons of CO2 equivalent.

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Transportation

qathet’s get-around gang: what works, what doesn’t

Editor’s Note: While Cortes and Quadra Islands discuss alternate forms of transportation, it is of interest to see what another community in our broadcast area is doing.

Originally published on qathet Living

BC Transit Powell River

Public service funded by fares, the Province of BC, the City, qathet Regional District, and Tla’amin Nation. Administered by BC Transit. 

Advantage: Cheap and consistent. You can go from Saltery Bay to Lund and everywhere in between for $2.25, and to Texada for $8, including the ferry fare. Kids 12 and under travel free. The HandiDART system, also $2.25 a ride, offers door to door service for people with mobility challenges. 

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Transportation

Rural community transit woes: You can’t get there from here

Originally published on qathet Living

Ever since Malaspina Coachlines died here, the dream was this: a BC Transit bus that ran regularly from downtown Powell River to downtown Vancouver. Fares would be affordable, service would be predictable, coaches would be accessible for those with mobility challenges, and costs would be shared between the Province, local taxpayers, and fares ​– ​​same as any other BC Transit bus. 

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Indigenous Nations, Transportation

First Nations Climate Initiative signs green shipping corridor agreement

Editor’s note: another sign that communities are beginning to take climate change more seriously.

By Seth Forward, Prince Rupert Northern View, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

More than 11,000 kilometres away from Northwest B.C., the West Green Shipping Corridor agreement was signed on Dec. 6 by the First Nations Climate Initiative (FNCI), a group comprising Lax Kw’alaams, Metlakatla, Nisga’a and Haisla. 

The North Coast group attended the COP 28 (Conference of the Parties) conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). 

Other signatories to the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) included Canada and the Port of Prince Rupert, along with ports in the UAE, South Korea and Japan. The FNCI says it would like to see the Port of Prince Rupert become a pioneer in decarbonizing its operations. 

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Politics, Transportation

Canada’s New Electric Vehicle Availability Standard

On Tuesday, December 19, The Government of Canada announced a gradual phasing out of gas powered light vehicle sales until 2035, after which all new vehicles must be 100% emissions free.

“Transportation is the most polluting  sector in Canada after oil and gas, a lot of that comes from road transportation. So from the vehicles we drive that are on the road, from sitting in traffic. This regulation is aiming  to ensure that we’re putting forward technologies like zero emission vehicles, that includes electric vehicles, that will drastically reduce emissions within that sector and this regulation says that it will have emissions reductions of 360 million tons. That’s the equivalent of 62,000 Olympic swimming pools full of gas that have been burned,” explained Meena Bibra, Senior Policy Analyst with Clean Energy Canada. 

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