Ferry late on 41 per cent of runs

[Curtis]

Ferry late on 41 per cent of runs
Laura Walz - Peak Editor
This summer the route was plagued by frequent late sailings. According to company statistics, the vessel was late on 30 per cent of the sailings in June, 31 per cent in July and 41 per cent in August.


BC Ferries considers a vessel on-time if it is within 10 minutes of the scheduled departure or arrival time.

In June, the ferry was late 143 times out of 472 sailings. In July and August, there were a total of 496 sailings each month and the ferry was late 155 times in July and 204 times in August.

The vast majority of times, the vessel was late due to traffic. Other reasons include crew, incident, mechanical, procedure and unknown.

The high percentage of late sailings is not typical for BC Ferries, said Marshall.

"The schedule is very tight on that particular run," she said. "Part of the problem is we try to let the Earls Cove-Saltery Bay route connect with route three, which is Horseshoe Bay-Langdale. If you made adjustments on either one, it would affect the other. The problem that we have on the Horseshoe Bay-Langdale run is so many people are commuting to work from Langdale. They have bus connections and things like that. If we change Earls Cove-Saltery Bay, we would have to change Horseshoe Bay-Langdale and it would negatively impact the thousands of people on that run as well."

However, BC Ferries recognizes there is a problem on the Saltery Bay-Earls Cove route and the company wants to do something about it, Marshall added. "Gordon Nettleton, our marine superintendent there, has recently been to the terminal several times at Saltery Bay to observe what the issues are and to try and come up with ways to provide better on-time performance."

One of the solutions is to use double-lane loading and discharge at Saltery Bay, Marshall said. "That isn't always done and I know that is something that Captain Nettleton has been pushing the crew to do more of, because that certainly speeds up the vessel's turn-around times in dock."

[Neil]

The schedule on the Earls Cove - Saltery Bay route is impossible to maintain. They're trying to unload and load an old, cramped ferry in ten minutes, and usually, it can't be done. Simple as that. A new, easier to load boat, and a realistic schedule, is the only answer.

[Low Light Mike]

prqueenkid16 said:

[One of the solutions is to use double-lane loading and discharge at Saltery Bay, Marshall said. "That isn't always done and I know that is something that Captain Nettleton has been pushing the crew to do more of, because that certainly speeds up the vessel's turn-around times in dock."

We noticed this on our Circle-Trip last month. Saltery Bay had double-lane loading, but Earl's Cove berth was single-lane.

Saltery Bay was taking advantage of both ramp lanes, when we were there.

[Retrovision]

That day loading at Saltery Bay:

[dualcitizen]

I'm afraid you're probably not going to see a lot of improvements to on-tim performance on this run until the Intermediate ferry is built(summer 2008) and the inevitable berth upgrades to accomodate this new vessel.

[Ferryman]

It's hard for the Tsawwassen to keep up with the high expectation schedule. She looses time on the trip from Earls Cove to Saltery Bay, because she has to back out and turn around at Earls Cove, and then turn around in Saltery Bay. So there's an extra 15-20 mins on the sailing time. But then again, they advertise the sailing being 50 mins long, but we went from Saltery Bay to Earls Cove in 40 mins.

[Curtis]

Saltery Bay to Earls Cove is Much Faster. Earls Cove to Saltery Bay involves the Turn arounds.
The Solution is to have the new intermidiate ferry going as fast as efficiently possible. 14.5 is the Speed the Queens of Chilliwack and Capilano go I'd like to see the Intermidiate ferry go 16 knots or as fast as the Tsawwassen at 18 knots. Any modifications they make to the Schedule affects the Schedule at the Langdale-Horseshoe Bay route since it connects with the route. The Solution is Faster loading Patterns with double laned traffic going out of both terminals and a 20 minute waiting period between arrival and departure except on crew changes.

It's not exactly the same problem with PR Comox as they have plenty of time at Westview to unload/load there should really be a second double laned dock where the Queen of Burnaby loads problem is they can't take advantage of that unloading due to the location loading the vessel would work though

[Low Light Mike]

prqueenkid16 said:

=It's not exactly the same problem with PR Comox as they have plenty of time at Westview to unload/load there should really be a second double laned dock where the Queen of Burnaby loads problem is they can't take advantage of that unloading due to the location loading the vessel would work though

Huh?

But for the Burnaby to do double-lane loading/unloading, they would need to modify both berths (Westview & Little River), and I can't see that being a capital priority anytime soon.

[Curtis]

Oh! Guess I left Little River Out of this. Little River is a Possible Westview Isn't due to location. Still the traffic volume is more at Westview then at Saltery Bay. But the Saltery Bay Ferry is always late hence the time saving.
Not trying to get a bit too off topic but.
One thing that Bugs me is that the Comox Route is done in 1 Hour 20 Minutes and it's a little over half the distance of the Tsawwassen Swartz Bay trip done in 1 Hour 35 Minutes if the Ferry was faster then it could do it in almost half the time.

[Political Incorrectness]

If you got something like the Oak Bay without deck 4 and have it run at 22 knots, you could do Powell River-Comox within an hour.

[Koastal Karl]

The published sailing times aren't accurate sometimes. They have done Comox to Powell River in 1hr and 15 before with a Sidney class ferry. Was the Sidney faster than the Burnaby cause it used to be only 1hr and 15mins.

[Curtis]

It might not have included the turnarounds. and plus the Sidney is smaller so it could go a bit faster.