BC Ferries will be looking at its schedule on the Sunshine Coast corridor to try to further improve connectivity of routes.
Bill Cripps, chair of the Northern Sunshine Coast Ferry Advisory Committee (FAC), raised the issue that people who catch the 4:30 and 6:40 pm sailings on Tuesday and Wednesday out of Saltery Bay have only about 10 minutes’ slack time in order to make the next ferry out of Langdale. He was speaking at a meeting on Wednesday, April 10, on Texada Island, involving executives from BC Ferries, the FAC and 20 members of the public.
“Our position is that you won’t be able to do it,” said Cripps. “You’ll spend two hours waiting for the next ferry. Those connections are impossible to make. Our initial concern is that some people are going to try to make it and put the pedal to the metal.”
BC Ferries’ regional director Jeff West suggested that one possible solution is to move the 6:40 pm sailing back 10 minutes to give a few extra minutes to arrive on time.
“We have the process established going the other way,” he said. West is referring to the process where if the ferry from Horseshoe Bay to Langdale is running late and a passenger is in danger of missing the last sailing of the day from Earls Cove the passenger can contact the chief steward to request the Island Sky be held for late-coming vehicles. Under the Island Sky captain’s discretion, the vessel may wait up to 30 minutes.
“We are going to be looking at how the whole Sunshine Coast corridor ties in with route seven [Saltery Bay-Earls Cove] to make it more compatible,” said West. “For me, it’s the 6:30 pm that can be dealt with more concretely.”
If the 4:30 pm is more than 30 minutes late, then “no schedule changes can fix it,” he added.
Sandy McCormick, Texada Island representative on the ferry advisory committee, also asked whether the first sailing of the morning from Blubber Bay could go earlier to facilitate an easier connection with the 7:25 am Saltery Bay ferry.
“If we want to catch that 7:25 ferry, we have to spend the night in Powell River,” she said.
