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Post by Ollie on Sept 7, 2023 15:38:18 GMT -8
So I gather Queen of Coquitlam will have a relatively short refit this year by the looks of it, appears to be on the schedule replacing the Cowichan after that. Is the Cowichan also getting a refit then?
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Post by The Black cat on Sept 7, 2023 16:28:36 GMT -8
It looks like right after Thanksgiving. Oct 11 Q Coquitlam on the schedule.
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Post by Ollie on Sept 7, 2023 20:07:45 GMT -8
BC Ferries service notice for the Coastal Renaissance:
"BC Ferries will be removing the drive motor from the Coastal Renaissance at the Departure Bay (Nanaimo) terminal beginning tonight, Thursday, September 7, through the morning of Saturday, September 16."
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Alec
Oiler (New Member)
Posts: 21
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Post by Alec on Sept 8, 2023 10:50:01 GMT -8
BC Ferries service notice for Langdale:
Langdale berth 1 will be closed from October 2 to 5 and instead use berth 2:
"To accommodate two-ship operation, the Queen of Oak Bay will be temporarily moved from its Departure Bay (Nanaimo) – Horseshoe Bay (Vancouver) duties and will join the Queen of Surrey to provide main deck loading service for Horseshoe Bay – Langdale customers."
Wouldn't it make more sense to move the Cowichan to Route 3, reassign the Surrey to replace it on Route 2, and then use the Cowichan's articulating ramps to load the upper car deck? I think that would be a lot less expensive.
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Post by Blue Bus Fan on Sept 8, 2023 12:16:03 GMT -8
BC Ferries service notice for Langdale:
Langdale berth 1 will be closed from October 2 to 5 and instead use berth 2:
"To accommodate two-ship operation, the Queen of Oak Bay will be temporarily moved from its Departure Bay (Nanaimo) – Horseshoe Bay (Vancouver) duties and will join the Queen of Surrey to provide main deck loading service for Horseshoe Bay – Langdale customers."
Wouldn't it make more sense to move the Cowichan to Route 3, reassign the Surrey to replace it on Route 2, and then use the Cowichan's articulating ramps to load the upper car deck? I think that would be a lot less expensive. I believe the Queen of Surrey, Queen of Oak Bay, Queen of Coquitlam, and Queen of Cowichan are the only vessels to have articulating ramps. I think for two days I think it more reasonable approach to the two day closure.
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Alec
Oiler (New Member)
Posts: 21
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Post by Alec on Sept 8, 2023 16:26:02 GMT -8
Wouldn't it make more sense to move the Cowichan to Route 3, reassign the Surrey to replace it on Route 2, and then use the Cowichan's articulating ramps to load the upper car deck? I think that would be a lot less expensive. I believe the Queen of Surrey, Queen of Oak Bay, Queen of Coquitlam, and Queen of Cowichan are the only vessels to have articulating ramps. I think for two days I think it more reasonable approach to the two day closure. Ah okay, I thought only the Cowichan and Coquitlam had articulating ramps. Does it really take that long to use them to the point they decided to have an entirely separate vessel running alongside instead?
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Neil
Voyager
Posts: 7,193
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Post by Neil on Sept 8, 2023 17:17:57 GMT -8
I believe the Queen of Surrey, Queen of Oak Bay, Queen of Coquitlam, and Queen of Cowichan are the only vessels to have articulating ramps. I think for two days I think it more reasonable approach to the two day closure. Ah okay, I thought only the Cowichan and Coquitlam had articulating ramps. Does it really take that long to use them to the point they decided to have an entirely separate vessel running alongside instead? I thought I had read somewhere on here that those ramps are no longer operational? In any event, it would take a ridiculous amount of time to load the whole upper deck that way.
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Post by Blue Bus Fan on Sept 8, 2023 17:20:05 GMT -8
Ah okay, I thought only the Cowichan and Coquitlam had articulating ramps. Does it really take that long to use them to the point they decided to have an entirely separate vessel running alongside instead? I thought I had read somewhere on here that those ramps are no longer operational? In any event, it would take a ridiculous amount of time to load the whole upper deck that way. But it’s only for two days, I think better better solution.
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Neil
Voyager
Posts: 7,193
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Post by Neil on Sept 8, 2023 17:24:34 GMT -8
I thought I had read somewhere on here that those ramps are no longer operational? In any event, it would take a ridiculous amount of time to load the whole upper deck that way. But it’s only for two days, I think better better solution. If they're not operational, it's not a solution. And even if they are, sending 150 cars up and 150 cars down a one lane ramp every sailing would probably eliminate at least one round trip a day.
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Post by ferryfanyvr on Sept 8, 2023 22:27:18 GMT -8
BC Ferries service notice for the Coastal Renaissance:
"BC Ferries will be removing the drive motor from the Coastal Renaissance at the Departure Bay (Nanaimo) terminal beginning tonight, Thursday, September 7, through the morning of Saturday, September 16."
The service notice states that "all sailings are reservable" but as of Saturday night the revised schedule for those 2 days still hasn't been loaded into the reservations website. All that is showing are the Surrey's 8 sailings, all sold out.
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Post by Ollie on Sept 25, 2023 9:35:19 GMT -8
Service notice for Queen of New Westminster sailing cancellations:
There doesn't seem to be any adverse weather conditions right now and why would only Queen of New Westminster have cancellations?
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Neil
Voyager
Posts: 7,193
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Post by Neil on Sept 25, 2023 10:37:10 GMT -8
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Post by Ferryman on Sept 25, 2023 16:12:12 GMT -8
Yes, the New West has a lower threshold for wind, primarily due to maneuverability while docking/undocking at Tsawwassen. The wind was 30-35 knots from the SE this morning, with 3 foot waves. Tsawwassen is most prone to the SE winds with low pressure systems as well as the NW high pressure systems. Both directions of winds will set the vessels bodily sideways into the sides of the berths which can make it tough to entering the berth against
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Post by timmyc on Sept 25, 2023 16:18:09 GMT -8
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Post by Ollie on Sept 28, 2023 14:43:34 GMT -8
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Post by Ollie on Oct 4, 2023 17:37:29 GMT -8
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Post by Ferryman on Oct 13, 2023 18:08:55 GMT -8
Some hiccups with the hydraulic system for the berth at Duke Pt today. Tonight it resulted with the Queen of Alberni being diverted to Departure Bay to offload traffic. The problem is now fixed and the Alberni is now heading to Duke pt to continue offloading traffic and to of course load traffic for the 17:45 sailing.
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Post by Blue Bus Fan on Oct 13, 2023 18:45:07 GMT -8
Some hiccups with the hydraulic system for the berth at Duke Pt today. Tonight it resulted with the Queen of Alberni being diverted to Departure Bay to offload traffic. The problem is now fixed and the Alberni is now heading to Duke pt to continue offloading traffic and to of course load traffic for the 17:45 sailing. I wonder if time to upgrade Duke Point with another berth since one incident could have massive effects on the major routes.
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Post by bcferryflicks on Oct 13, 2023 20:10:31 GMT -8
Some hiccups with the hydraulic system for the berth at Duke Pt today. Tonight it resulted with the Queen of Alberni being diverted to Departure Bay to offload traffic. The problem is now fixed and the Alberni is now heading to Duke pt to continue offloading traffic and to of course load traffic for the 17:45 sailing. I wonder if time to upgrade Duke Point with another berth since one incident could have massive effects on the major routes. It would be good to add on a second birth at Duke Point. From what I've heard they were supposed to build a second one there but the project never went through.
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Neil
Voyager
Posts: 7,193
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Post by Neil on Oct 13, 2023 21:10:56 GMT -8
Some hiccups with the hydraulic system for the berth at Duke Pt today. Tonight it resulted with the Queen of Alberni being diverted to Departure Bay to offload traffic. The problem is now fixed and the Alberni is now heading to Duke pt to continue offloading traffic and to of course load traffic for the 17:45 sailing. I wonder if time to upgrade Duke Point with another berth since one incident could have massive effects on the major routes. Frankly, I'm surprised it's never been done, and unless I'm missing something, it doesn't seem to be on the list of possible capital expenditures. The terminal was indeed built with the stub end of the second berth in place, which has only been used to park drop trailer traffic. It would be a huge expenditure, but BC Ferries is starting to incur costs of not having a second berth, as in deadheading vessels to and from Departure Bay.
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Post by WettCoast on Oct 14, 2023 6:36:43 GMT -8
I wonder if time to upgrade Duke Point with another berth since one incident could have massive effects on the major routes. Frankly, I'm surprised it's never been done, and unless I'm missing something, it doesn't seem to be on the list of possible capital expenditures. The terminal was indeed built with the stub end of the second berth in place, which has only been used to park drop trailer traffic. It would be a huge expenditure, but BC Ferries is starting to incur costs of not having a second berth, as in deadheading vessels to and from Departure Bay. BCFS needs to get on with a second berth at Duke, and a fully functional two-decked second berth at Langdale. They also need to get new major vessel construction rolling ASAP. They have been doing good stuff of late for some of the minor routes with the Island class vessel introductions. The major routes, on the other hand, have been neglected in terms of terminal upgrades (Duke & Langdale) and new vessel construction.
BCFS has been pushing users away from route two in favour of route 30. Maybe its time to make route 30 more resilient.
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Alec
Oiler (New Member)
Posts: 21
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Post by Alec on Oct 14, 2023 10:44:40 GMT -8
I wonder if time to upgrade Duke Point with another berth since one incident could have massive effects on the major routes. It would be good to add on a second birth at Duke Point. From what I've heard they were supposed to build a second one there but the project never went through. Looking at it from above, it certainly looks like infrastructure was built to accommodate a second berth. That begs the question though (and I believe it has been brought up on this forum before), if they want to have a Langdale-type berth or "hammerhead," isn't Northumberland Channel a bit tight for the 180° turn that would be required to use what would become berth 2? Update: it seems that, in fact, Duke Point was built to accommodate two additional berths. Reference the bottom left of this image. (Credit to Ferryman for this, I found it in a very old post of his.)
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Neil
Voyager
Posts: 7,193
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Post by Neil on Oct 14, 2023 12:32:47 GMT -8
It would be good to add on a second birth at Duke Point. From what I've heard they were supposed to build a second one there but the project never went through. Looking at it from above, it certainly looks like infrastructure was built to accommodate a second berth. That begs the question though (and I believe it has been brought up on this forum before), if they want to have a Langdale-type berth or "hammerhead," isn't Northumberland Channel a bit tight for the 180° turn that would be required to use what would become berth 2? Update: it seems that, in fact, Duke Point was built to accommodate two additional berths. Reference the bottom left of this image. (Credit to Ferryman for this, I found it in a very old post of his.) There's ample room for a full turn into a berth that would face the opposite direction; the ' New Westminster has always done it when on the run.
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Post by Blue Bus Fan on Oct 14, 2023 13:25:42 GMT -8
Frankly, I'm surprised it's never been done, and unless I'm missing something, it doesn't seem to be on the list of possible capital expenditures. The terminal was indeed built with the stub end of the second berth in place, which has only been used to park drop trailer traffic. It would be a huge expenditure, but BC Ferries is starting to incur costs of not having a second berth, as in deadheading vessels to and from Departure Bay. BCFS has been pushing users away from route two in favour of route 30. Maybe it’s time to make route 30 more resilient.
I truly think BC Ferries should just unveil the long term plan for route 30 if it’s going to become main route from Metro Vancouver to Nanaimo for BC Transit and TransLink can start the process of connection of bus service and ferry schedules.
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Post by Dane on Oct 14, 2023 16:11:36 GMT -8
BCFS has been pushing users away from route two in favour of route 30. Maybe it’s time to make route 30 more resilient.
I truly think BC Ferries should just unveil the long term plan for route 30 if it’s going to become main route from Metro Vancouver to Nanaimo for BC Transit and TransLink can start the process of connection of bus service and ferry schedules. I hope this doesn't happen, and customer pressure beings back service on Route 2 with a third boat. The use of Route 30 led to an overall reduction in sailings, and is just a horrific route for transit. While I do hope BC Transit starts serving Duke Point, even when they do it'll be a terrible place to have to serve. Urban transit doesn't do great with low density areas with occasional very high volumes of passengers.
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