Quadra Island residents protest ferry

[tyty]

CAMPBELL RIVER (CBC) – About 150 Quadra Islanders staged a noisy protest on Friday, demanding the return of a passenger shelter on the vehicle deck of the ferry that serves the island.

The protesters marched onto the ferry with a brass band for the 10 a.m. sailing, hoping for a meeting with B.C. Ferries CEO David Hahn – who had been on Quadra for a meeting with the local ferry advisory group.

But Hahn didn't catch the ferry while they were aboard, and they never got the chance to deliver their message in person.

The passenger shelter on the vehicle deck was there for people who couldn't manage the stairs up to the passenger deck.

There is no elevator on the Powell River Queen, the ferry that connects Quadra Island with Vancouver Island. And he construction trailer that used to serve as a shelter was removed during a refit last year.

The protesters rode the ferry over to Campbell River. There they refused to disembark and buy tickets back to the island, riding back for free instead.

[Curtis]

They're Idiots!! it's a 10 minute trip for crying out loud!! why don't you stay in your Car

[tyty]

I know. People will find ANYTHING to complain about.

[Dane]

Not only that.... I thought it was returning in a few months and was removed while deck work was undertaken over a few months. They're also mad ticket sales dicontinue 60 seconds before the ships sail.... idiots.

[Curtis]

My wager it's old people complaining mainly

[Cosmo]

being a former Campbell River resident, the complainers are Quadra islanders with nothing better to do that morning.

[Retrovision]

Unfortunately this is a dilema met by operators of any similar transportation-system. With my home-town's case, Tsawwassen, there is one area, Boundary Bay, that has not had *any* regular service, at all, ever. A Token 4 busses are sent out at rush-hour, with literally only a half hour between two busses, in sets of two (AM/PM peak hours); this has given Boundary Bay, conceptually, 1 hour of service to their area for less than every 24. Oh, did I forget to mention, they don't get *any* Weekend service .

Whatever the reasoning that you might suspect, this is how it plays out everywhere; I mean think about it, this isn't exactly a third-world country that we're living in...

Where are the Standards?!?



And just a note about Boundary Bay; if it weren't for the tireless efforts of only a few, they would not have the minimal service that they have now, which, really, is quite necessary as a precedent in order to acquire higher levels of service, when that happens.

As for Boundary's future service, the most-likely senario is that they will recieve service upgrades along with the rest of the community of Tsawwassen, in the fall, because of the currently-precedented (thanks to those few) present service (as well as because of the precedent set by other "community-shuttle-ized" (or "CS-ized") routes of the region.