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Post by Ferryman on May 26, 2009 9:29:03 GMT -8
The RBI is beginning to shape up for the period of the 2010 games. No really big sailing changes to note, however there will be a few things to take into account.
Route 1 Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay
-Coastal Celebration starts off the day at 6am doing two round trips in the morning. Then misses a round trip, but starting up again at 6:00pm from Swartz Bay and finishing off with at 12:00am sailing from Tsawwassen.
-Queen of New Westminster doesn't appear to be sailing for that time, aka only 3 boat service on Route 1.
Route 2 Horseshoe Bay to Departure Bay
-Summer schedule in effect with the oddball sailing departures. 6:20am, 8:30am, 10:40am, etc....
-The scheduling still needs to be adjusted a little bit, because some of the sailings don't match up quite correctly. The RBI states there will be a 10:00pm sailing on the Coastal Renaissance from Departure Bay, just 25 minutes after the 9:35pm sailing of the Queen of Oak Bay. However from Horseshoe Bay, the Coastal Renaissance is shown as doing a 9:35pm sailing also. BUT....The Queen of Cowichan is listed as doing a 11:59pm sailing to Departure Bay. So I'd assume that the 10:00pm departure from Nanaimo is actually supposed to be the Cowichan.
Route 3 Langdale to Horseshoe Bay
- The Queen of Capilano is listed as doing a deadhead sailing from Horseshoe Bay to Langdale at 11:00pm, arriving at the other end for 11:45pm. I'm scratching my head on that one, and am thinking it would take a little longer.
Route 9 Tsawwassen to Southern Gulf Islands
-RBI doesn't appear to be setup for 2010 service yet
Route 10
-Northern Adventure and Nimpkish handling the Northern Rus
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Neil
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Post by Neil on Feb 12, 2010 23:58:32 GMT -8
I can understand David Hahn saying that BC Ferries expected to lose money on their extra Olympic sailings. Just before midnight tonight, the Tsawwassen sailing was 17% full, and Horseshoe Bay was 5%.
Might have been 55,000 at the opening wingding, but obviously, very few of them were from Vancouver Island.
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Post by Northern Exploration on Feb 13, 2010 8:20:50 GMT -8
I can understand David Hahn saying that BC Ferries expected to lose money on their extra Olympic sailings. Just before midnight tonight, the Tsawwassen sailing was 17% full, and Horseshoe Bay was 5%. Might have been 55,000 at the opening wingding, but obviously, very few of them were from Vancouver Island. So many of the people I know who are from BC are avoiding Vancouver simply out of fear of traffic chaos etc. I think those fears are probably exaggerated. Once the actual events are underway later today we will likely see a better representation of traffic. I think the opening cermonies with closures for the flame run to the harbour was probably the worst. Closing ceremonies will also be busy. I know Vancouver isn't known for getting from point A to B quickly but how bad can it be. G7/G8 meetings cause a fair bit of chaos with freeway closures and security zones. If you want to see chaos, go to NYC during major UN meetings where POTUS and other mucky mucks go to and fro and try to go crosstown . BC Ferries had no choice but to step up service, but I think not that many people are going to use the later sailings.
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Koastal Karl
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Post by Koastal Karl on Feb 13, 2010 9:19:37 GMT -8
Accoring to RBI the Queen of New West in doing the midnight sailings starting Sunday night returning to Tsawwassen at 2am from Swartz Bay then going out again at 7am.
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Post by ferryfan on Feb 13, 2010 14:16:38 GMT -8
Accoring to RBI the Queen of New West in doing the midnight sailings starting Sunday night returning to Tsawwassen at 2am from Swartz Bay then going out again at 7am. i just got word that the new west is sailing at 12 am from the 15-17th and the 22-24th... they will tie up in swartz bay and be the 5 am sailing...this way it will be back to do the 7am sailing out of tsa...
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Koastal Karl
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Post by Koastal Karl on Feb 16, 2010 9:15:05 GMT -8
There is no 5am listed at all! The New West did a 2am this morning. Anyone know why the Renaissance isent running??? I thought she was suppose to be running during the olympics but I see the Cowichan is replacing her and the Coqutilam is doing the late night sailings.
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Post by Jacob on Feb 16, 2010 11:33:13 GMT -8
Oh Fun Fun Fun... Yes they have been juggling ships. The BC is down until further notice because of a crankcase or crankshaft issue. An employee at Tsawwassen told me on Fri (Feb 12) that would be for 4 weeks... So the New West is likely to be the Tsawwassen #1 vessel throughout the Olympics. The Renaissance was replaced by the Cowichan because of a breakdown on the 13th for the 1900 departure from Departure. That day the 2200 was canceled and the Oak Bay did the 2359 dep. and a deadhead back. The Coquitlam has since been doing the 2200 and 2359 sailings. When the Renaissance broke down, she could be seen on the vessel tracking page of the website doing 6.6 knots in the Straight when the Oak Bay had already tied up at Horseshoe!!! As of last night, the NW did the 2359 sailing out of Tsawwassen followed by a 0200 out of Swartz this am. Looks to be the same today according to the arrivals/departures page on the website. The last few days the CC had been doing an 1800 or 2200 sailing out of Swartz followed by the 2359 out of Tsawwassen, as well as the 0600 out of Swartz and a 0800 out of Tsawwassen and last Friday a 1000 and 1200 too.
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Post by hwy19man on Feb 18, 2010 1:24:32 GMT -8
The New Westminster is doing the 0000h and 200h round trip this morning and so is the Coquitlam. The NW is in port already and the time was 117h. Fast crossing. Murphy's Law strikes again with the primary vessels breaking down.
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Koastal Karl
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Post by Koastal Karl on Feb 18, 2010 18:18:26 GMT -8
Would the late night sailings be open to anyone??? Or is it just vehicle traffic?? I would assume anyone could take those sailings I just dont know how many foot passengers would take those late night sailings and if the foot passenger facilities would be open??? As I think it would be neat to do one of those sailings!
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Post by ferryfanyvr on Feb 18, 2010 18:49:04 GMT -8
The late sailings are indeed open to everyone. And my BCF employee friend says the reservations are free for the QoNW when she does the 0200 sailing from SB to TSA. Kind of meaningless though, since those sailings are running almost empty anyway. It'd be better if they just discounted the regular fare. At least then the sailings would probably be popular with commercial vehicles.
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Post by DENelson83 on Feb 19, 2010 8:49:56 GMT -8
The NW is in port already and the time was 117h. Fast crossing. 117 hours? That's really slow!!!
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Koastal Karl
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Post by Koastal Karl on Feb 19, 2010 9:36:00 GMT -8
I think personally this olympic scheduling sucks for route 1! Right now Swartz Bay to Tsawwassen the 11am is almost full at 9:30am and the 1pm is like 70% full too. It seems to be messed up without the regular extra sailings at noon and 4pm from Swartz Bay and 2pm and 6pm from Tsawwassen.
Why couldent they have done this??? Swartz Bay extra sailings Tsawwasssen extra sailings 6am 8am 12pm 2pm 4pm 6pm 10pm 11:59pm
They could of kept the regular Friday and Sunday schedules but included two early morning sailings and the late night sailings. Would of been a better way to do it!
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Post by cobblehillian on Feb 19, 2010 11:55:52 GMT -8
The Olympic scheduling may have been designed with more than one purpose in mind. I would be very interested in the perspectives and analysis of others on this. I'm not an economist or accountant. Mr. Flugel Horn, any comments would be welcomed.
I have always wondered if the number of reservation fees collected (a measure of demand) had something to do with scheduling. Afterall, BCF has indicated through their more recent financial statements that these fees are a very important, perhaps, an increasingly important piece of revenue and profit. There appears to be a strong incentive within BCF to maintain or enhance revenue collected through these charges.
Has BCF increasingly made reservation fee potential a part of scheduling and capacity utilization decisions? If the number of sailings is relatively limited in a tight market the number of reservations sold increases. This approach increases revenue through increasing the per capita take. Instead of laying on more sailings, more crew and more vessels, which are all costly and reduce per capita profit potential, BCF rations availability to ensure a higher take per passenger. The airlines have honed their skills to produce the highest possible revenue through scheduling and structured fares. However, for them the task is harder due to being in competitive markets.
I have noticed that the percentage of reservations per sailing seems to be increasing. Has BCF raised the ceiling they once had for this? I suspect that scheduling and known demand (savvy islanders know when the busy times and days occur) have come together to encourage more users to secure reservations. Depending on how you look at things a monopoly has its advantages and disadvantages. In this case the inaccessible privatised monopoly has the advantage. It can maximize revenue and profit through manipulating availability at the best times and the availability of guaranteed passage. In the case of government run (e.g.WSF?) or competitive models things might be different. A taxpayer supported system would attempt to ensure (maybe with less attention to cost) that all those desiring a service got it; while a competitive system would see operators vying for market share through scheduling, perhaps increased sailings and incentive fares as well as other service measures.
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Post by fargowolf on Feb 19, 2010 15:45:10 GMT -8
The NW is in port already and the time was 117h. Fast crossing. 117 hours? That's really slow!!! Maybe it's an attempt to save a bit of money. ;D
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Post by Nickfro on Feb 19, 2010 16:47:14 GMT -8
On past days for Route 3 I have noticed that the Queen of Surrey has been doing the scheduled 11pm sailing out of Horseshoe Bay after deadheading over from Langdale after completing the 915pm sailing. Today, however, the Queen of Capilano is listed as the 11pm sailing. I didn't check the departures page for a couple days, but what was once suspected is now officially true. Too bad you'd be stuck over on the Coast for the night, because it'd be fun to take the Cappy on Route 3, even if it was at night!
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Neil
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Post by Neil on Feb 19, 2010 17:06:57 GMT -8
On past days for Route 3 I have noticed that the Queen of Surrey has been doing the scheduled 11pm sailing out of Horseshoe Bay after deadheading over from Langdale after completing the 915pm sailing. Today, however, the Queen of Capilano is listed as the 11pm sailing. I didn't check the departures page for a couple days, but what was once suspected is now officially true. Too bad you'd be stuck over on the Coast for the night, because it'd be fun to take the Cappy on Route 3, even if it was at night! Makes sense to use the ' Capilano, since these late night sailings have been a dead loss for BC Ferries. They're basically doing them as a public service. Anyone wondering why schedules don't normally run later, just take a look at the 'current conditions' after 11 at night during these Olympics, and you'll get your answer.
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Post by WettCoast on Feb 19, 2010 17:31:57 GMT -8
So are BC taxpayers picking up the losses on these extra unnecessary sailings, or will BCFS absorb the losses? If it is the latter, can we expect an Olympic losses surcharge soon?
It appears that traffic is little if any heavier than what would pass for normal in mid February. Route 1 might need a few extra sailings only because the SoBC is out. The other routes appear to need no sailings other than those normally scheduled at this time of year.
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Post by ferryfanyvr on Feb 19, 2010 18:58:02 GMT -8
Today, passenger traffic is much higher on rt1 than a normal February Friday. I had my friend check into it and most the sailings from SB today are carrying between 1000 and 1800 passengers!
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Nick
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Post by Nick on Feb 20, 2010 13:38:19 GMT -8
It has been a regular occurrence on route 1 for the ships to hit their passenger cap before the vehicle space is filled up. Yesterday afternoon the New West left SWB with a 75% vehicle load, only because she was at her A license pax capacity. So to say that it's not much busier than a normal February is not true at all. Vehicle-wise, maybe.
Remember that there is no public parking at any of the Olympic venues, and you get free transit with your ticket.
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Post by crash on Feb 20, 2010 14:26:06 GMT -8
A couple of hundred footsies hoping to get the 0900 sailing were left behind at the Swartz Bay terminal Friday morning. There was no 1000. It seems to me the schedule should have been changed when it became apparent that the SOBC would not be in service.
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Post by Scott (Former Account) on Feb 20, 2010 14:34:50 GMT -8
It seems to me the schedule should have been changed when it became apparent that the SOBC would not be in service. Rumor was that the Renaissance was to make her way to Swartz Bay to become number two, with the Celebration becoming number one out of Swartz Bay. This would have allowed the transfer of the SOVI as number one from Tsawwassen and New West as a possible number two. However, the Renaissance has been having turbocharger issues recently making her unavailable for service.
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Post by Low Light Mike on Feb 20, 2010 17:55:11 GMT -8
I have always wondered if the number of reservation fees collected (a measure of demand) had something to do with scheduling.
Has BCF increasingly made reservation fee potential a part of scheduling and capacity utilization decisions? If the number of sailings is relatively limited in a tight market the number of reservations sold increases. This approach increases revenue through increasing the per capita take. I don't think so. I'm thinking of traditional sailing wait times such as Sunday afternoons and long-weekend Mondays. Even with hourly sailings on Route-1, there are still overloads in those instances. Not just on 3 summer holiday weekends, but pretty much every Sunday pm. So even with hourly sailings, reservations are still a necessity for some people at regular times of the week. If we wanted to see the need for reservations (most of the time) lessened, ie have more supply available, then I wonder how possible or impossible it would be to increase supply to the extent that the need for reservations was measurably reduced. Take Route-2, for example. If there were only 4 sailings each-way, each day, then that would increase the need for reservations. But if there were 8 sailings each way, each day, the need for reservations would decrease (because the risk of a long terminal wait is limited to a 1-hour wait), but the chance of more low-load sailings increases. And mostly empty sailings are an unmaintainable situation for any ferry company. - So Route-2 adds a 3rd ship in certain high-demand traffic situations, and that seems to be a good solution. ================ In this case the inaccessible privatised monopoly has the advantage. It can maximize revenue and profit through manipulating availability at the best times and the availability of guaranteed passage. ....and we see that, with peak & off-peak fares, and seasonally adjusted fares. This is an attempt to steer more traffic to the off-peak times, but is also a way to take advantage of the high demand times, to earn more revenue. And when it comes to seasonally adjusted fares (such as Inside Passage), quite often the customer has little choice but to take the trip in the high-fare season. Summer is the time that most people are able and wanting to travel.
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Post by hwy19man on Feb 21, 2010 19:00:44 GMT -8
A couple of hundred footsies hoping to get the 0900 sailing were left behind at the Swartz Bay terminal Friday morning. There was no 1000. It seems to me the schedule should have been changed when it became apparent that the SOBC would not be in service. The complaining from Friday obviously worked because yesterday there was a 1000h sailing from SWB. The Times Colonist reported that the 900h sailing had a passenger wait over 600 people. www.timescolonist.com/sports/Coming+going+Olympic+fever+white/2593452/story.html
Today, there has been extra sailings on route 1 again. The Celebration did trips from TSA at 800h and at 1000h from SWB. It will also do extra trips leaving TSA at 2000h and SWB at 2200h.
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Post by Ferryman on Feb 22, 2010 21:12:15 GMT -8
This was the load of cars aboard the Queen of Cowichan during her 9:00pm sailing last night (Sunday). The rest of the load was entirely foot passengers which was the worst amount of crowdedness I've EVER witnessed aboard the Cowichan. Announcements were made over the PA to tell people to remove baggage off of seats and that it would be enforced. Sure enough the Cheif Steward did multiple rounds telling people to make way for people needing to sit down. We found a nice spot on the floor right beside the Womens washroom to sit down for much of the sailing. Lots of other people also braved the cold and sat outside. I found out today that a colleage of mine was on the 12:00am sailing this morning, which was the next sailing after the one I was on. It was equally as busy he said. He had also came over on Saturday morning to catch the 6:30am sailing, but had to wait until the 8:30am because the 6:30 was already maxed out for passengers. Anyways, I leave you a pic of our huge load of vehicles on the Main car deck just before we docked at Departure Bay, and I decided to make a run for it off the ship via that deck.
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Neil
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Post by Neil on Feb 22, 2010 22:31:27 GMT -8
B.C. Ferries swamped by Games crush We’ll learn from the mistakes made in ‘once in a lifetime event,’ CEO says By Rob Shaw, Times ColonistFebruary 22, 2010 10:02 B.C. Ferries says it will learn from a weekend of long wait times and angry travellers to better plan service for the rest of the Olympic Games. President and CEO David Hahn said Monday the past few days could serve as a guide for the next busy weekend, when thousands of people are again expected to pack ferries to and from Vancouver. “We’re going to use the stuff from [last] weekend to evaluate in advance what next weekend will be like,” said Hahn. The ferry corporation was flooded with a 32 per cent increase in walk-on passengers last weekend. Saturday morning, that meant 600 walk-on passengers were left behind on the 9 a.m. sailing from Swartz Bay to Tsawwassen. On Sunday evening, more than 1,000 people lined up at Tsawwassen trying to get back to the Island. Many of them faced a two-sailing wait and had to stand in the cold for hours. There were no foot passenger waits yesterday, although B.C. Ferries reported a two-sailing vehicle wait for the 3 p.m. ferry at Tsawwassen and one-sailing waits there for the 7 a.m., 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. sailings. Hahn defended the ferry corporation’s planning, saying it’s not realistic or affordable to run ferries every hour, all day, and that the corporation does its best to add sailings as quickly as possible when lineups grow. The focus is to make sure no one is left behind after the last ferry at midnight, he said. “From our perspective, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime event,” Hahn said. “It’s completely unpredictable on a traffic basis.” Not everyone agrees. Some passengers say B.C. Ferries should have anticipated the Sunday night rush because the Canada-U.S. hockey game was that day, and it was the end of a busy weekend that saw passengers go to Vancouver in droves on Friday and Saturday. It was also the conclusion of reading break for University of Victoria students, and the end of a long weekend for many public school students. Critics say the ferry corporation appeared caught off-guard. “It just comes down to: How busy were you throughout the day, and could you predict this?” said Fernando Pimentel, a 32-year-old financial services worker from Victoria, who was caught in Sunday’s lineup. Ferries from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay were at capacity that day, starting with the 3 p.m. sailing. Huge lineups of walk-on passengers began to grow in the late afternoon. By 6:30 p.m., foot passengers were told they’d have to wait until the 9 p.m. ferry. Motorists without reservations also endured two-sailing waits. Pimentel said he was astounded to hear ferry workers debating at 8:30 p.m. whether to add sailings, when the line was still growing and the 9 p.m. sailing was already full. “I was looking at them dumbfounded,” he said. B.C. Ferries did add sailings at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m., clearing the backlog and leaving the midnight ferry less than half full. Hahn shot down suggestions that ferries should be running every hour, whether they’re busy or not, to prevent lineups. “And how much do you want me to raise the fares to cover all of that?” he asked. Besides, lineups are part of large events like the Olympics. “I think we’ve done a really good job of moving people in a really unpredictable pattern.” He said B.C. Ferries is spending $2 million to accommodate extra runs during the Olympics, including a 6 a.m. sailing from Swartz Bay to Tsawwassen and a midnight return. That makes it possible for Islanders to travel to Olympic events in the morning and catch a late ferry home. “We didn’t spend a lot of time trying to figure out what we thought the usage would be,” he said. “What we put a focus on was: What would be the maximum spread you could give to get people over and back during a day?” Opposition NDP ferry critic Gary Coons said he hopes the extra money being spent by the quasi-private corporation is being put to good use. “People pay high fares, they deserve good service,” he said. “It’s not as if B.C. Ferries didn’t know the Olympics were coming, so they’ll be better prepared in the weekend to come.” B.C. Ferries carried 65,789 passengers and 13,069 vehicles between Tsawwassen and Swartz Bay from Friday to Sunday. On the same weekend last February, Ferries logged 47,845 people and 13,825 vehicles. — With a file by Sandra McCulloch rfshaw@tc.canwest.com © Copyright (c) The Victoria Times Colonist www.timescolonist.com/sports/2010wintergames/Ferries+swamped+Games+crush/2599472/story.html
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