Ferry future

[Political Incorrectness]

well on MSN with scott doug and strong skier we talked about the future of bc ferries what they will need to do like move all operations from departure bay to duke point cause departure bay has reached capacity well almost has and also how to releave congestion at horeshoe bay. post your ideas of what should be done in the future

[Doug]

How about an underground or stacked compound at Departure Bay?

[Balfour]

Build a 2nd berth at Duke point, and then have route 2 use it as well as rte 30. DUke Point is quite a bit bigger than Dep Bay in the way of car holding capacity.

[Scott (Former Account)]

Departure Bay has no room to expand... It is near a residential area, and can only be accessed through Brechin or Stewart Ave. Traffic is a nightmare on Brechin during off-loading, and still remains to this day considering all the upgrades that have taken place. I personally do not see BCFS spending the amount of money required to expand the terminal vertically, nor can I see the city allowing it...

Duke Point terminal is more than capable to handle both routes provided that the second berth is constructed, and a few more modifications are made. Also, there is more room to expand if that ever needs to be considered...

[Koastal Karl]

Yeah they should have both routes out of Duke Point but that could get pretty busy with only 2 berths there with the amount of sailings on route 2 now! Or just have the vessel that does extra sailings on route 2 run out of Duke Point! Use the extra sailings out of Duke Point or something like that!

Route 2 extra sailings via Duke Point!

[hergfest]

If they do use Duke Point for Route 2, they would have too build two or three more berths. One would be for Route 2, the second for the second boat tied up on Route 2, and a third extra for maintenance and tie up of extra boats (Like the pics of the Queen of PR at DB).

[NMcKay]

i think they should build 4 More berths, 3 2 level decks, and 1 1 level to handle Gabriola to Nanaimo as well

[Political Incorrectness]

well could they move gabriola island operations to departure bay instead and also use departure ba as a maintenece facility?

[Alex]

ferrymaniac101 said:

well could they move gabriola island operations to departure bay instead and also use departure ba as a maintenece facility?

I like this idea. They could simply use the Departure Bay area for all the maintenance, and extra tie-ups, since Duke Point isn't that far away by water.

However, I bet that land would fetch a pretty good price if they decided to sell the Departure Bay terminal land.

There's also another issue with Duke Point. The whole area around it is some sort of park, so people would be up in arms if they tried to expand too much there.

[Political Incorrectness]

well have there been many users of the park and who pays to mantain it?

[Quinsam]

Today at 2:29pm, Dan wrote:well could they move gabriola island operations to departure bay instead and also use departure ba as a maintenece facility?

I like this idea. They could simply use the Departure Bay area for all the maintenance, and extra tie-ups, since Duke Point isn't that far away by water.

However, I bet that land would fetch a pretty good price if they decided to sell the Departure Bay terminal land.

There's also another issue with Duke Point. The whole area around it is some sort of park, so people would be up in arms if they tried to expand too much there.

The Quinsam going from Departure bay to Gabriola will be a good idea for the residents of Brechin that don't have means of transportation to Nanaimo Downtown, but the downtown residents will no longer be able to go to Gabriola unless they have means of tranportation, unless they bring another vessel there to do Nanaimo to Gabriola.

[Political Incorrectness]

Quinsam they can still use the run who says they cant use it

[Quinsam]

It's just the downtown residents won't be able to go to gabriola unless there is a bus service or they have a vehicle to departure bay.

[Political Incorrectness]

ever heard of a thing called walking?

[Doug]

Moving the Gabriola Island service to Duke Point is a bad idea. It was bad enough having it at Departure Bay. The route is mainly used by commuters who live on Gabriola and work in Nanaimo. How would you like to drive an extra 40 km each day...?

[quinsam]

yes, but it is a long walk from downtown to departure bay, like 5 miles or something

[Doug]

I already said it was a bad idea...it should remain at Nanaimo Harbour....

[Curtis]

Have Duke Point as the service to Vancouver for Gabriola Residents or Departure Bay

[BrianWilliams]

Oh oh; in a minute someone's going to resurrect the Gabriola bridge plan ... then see the feathers fly!

I can't think of an easy change to the Gabriola route. The Nanaimo dock is hedged by big condos, so a larger terminal is not going to happen there.

Gabriola's Descanso Bay space is even smaller, so a park-and-ride to a foot ferry is unlikely, too.

Gabriola to Departure Bay would be possible, with a detour around the outside of Newcastle Island.

Duke Point is an obvious Gabriola departure point, except for the lengthy road trip to downtown and north Nanaimo. A traffic survey of Gabriola travellers might help us understand where most Gabriolans are going on the Nanaimo side.

Dan mentioned a park at Duke Point: I think that is Jack Point, the end of the peninsula. I don't advocate trashing a park, but I don't think Jack Point is in much danger from more traffic at Duke Point.

Perhaps more notable is the effort to restore the once-industrial wasteland that is the entire Nanaimo River estuary. Working Harmac still occupies a big piece and will for years to come. West and south of Duke Point, some old mill sites have been restored as healthy wetlands.

These too are not in danger, if we expand the access roads with care.

[BrianWilliams]

I do agree that Departure Bay should not be expanded. Like Horseshoe Bay, DB's vehicle capacity is at maximum-plus on busy days.

Reforms for HB would benefit DB. No commercial trucks or tour busses for the mainland to start. Perhaps reservation-only passenger cars in May to September as well?

Yes, like HB, Departure Bay terminal could be double-decked. But the concrete monster at the end of Stewart Avenue would be an eyesore. At least at Horseshoe Bay, it's hidden under the bluff.

[Ferryman]

Well, there really isn't any other places to put a ferry terminal big enough to handle the traffic volumes that occur in the summer and holidays. Someone said that route 2 should not go to Horseshoe Bay anymore but to another part of Vancouver so the traffic doesn't get backed up the highway. But where? It would be pointless to make another terminal in the Richmond area by the Airport because Tsawwassen isn't that far away from there. The only place I could tell that might be able to handle a terminal in Vancouver is that polluted land under the Lions Gate Bridge by looking on the satellite maps on Google. But according to the news today, those lands are going to be cleaned up and buildings are going to be built there. But there's alot of Cruise Ships and other ship traffic going through the First Narrows, and I'm sure the last thing they need is a ferry service trying to run right in the other ship traffic.
For the Nanaimo side, they should add on another 2 berths like said before I think at Duke Point. But the current dock could only handle one extra berth without too much modification. Then they would also have to widen the ramp to get up on to the upper car deck so it could accomodate the traffic going to Tsawwassen or Horseshoe Bay at the same time if there's 2 ferries in dock so they're not waiting for each other to unload or load. But by how the dock is angled, it would be like at Langdale with a C-Class doing a wide turn into the dock if it was to dock in the new berth that they would build.
But then what would they do with Departure Bay after all of this? Well, if they needed to but the Gabriola run somewhere else without the Gabriola residents complaining too much, Departure Bay would be the best answer (besides building a bridge) but there would be alot of extra dock and parking space (if route 2 moved to Duke Point remember) so they would probably dismantle one of the berths and take the upper ramp down.
I'm not saying they should definitely do this, but these are pretty much the only ideas I could see if they were to change the terminals around. I couldn't see any of this happening really anytime soon because it would be way too costly just to handle all of the traffic in the terminal for at least 3 months a year maybe?
One thing I've noticed is that not too much money gets spent at Departure Bay compared to Horseshoe Bay, Tsawwassen and Swartz Bay. ( I could be wrong ) But the things I've noticed with what they've done there that I've noticed in my lifetime is: Joining the ramps to the upper car deck together, or rebuilding them I can't remember, there was a bit of a renovation to the coffee shop, and the dismantling of the signs that pointed out which booth was to Tsawwassen or Horseshoe Bay. Everything else seems to be pretty much the same as far back as I remember ( till about 1991 maybe). Maybe they are holding off spending money there so they could move it to Duke Point, but who knows. Only time can tell...

[Doug]

Does Gabriola Island need a bigger terminal on the Nanaimo side? Although Departure Bay would work, it probably wouldn't be as good as it's current location, but Duke Point is a horrible idea. Probably at least 50% of the people who use the ferry are commuters, living on Gabriola and working in Nanaimo. The reason Departure Bay might be a potential location to move to is because Nanaimo as a city is expanding northward.

As for Departure Bay serving Horseshoe Bay, if a stacked compound wouldn't be a good idea, how about a buried compound? It would require a lot of work and closures throughout parts of the terminal are evident but the end result would probably more than double its current capacity. Use the current lot for upper deck vehicles such as smaller cars and use the new buried lot for the trucks. Just a suggestion.... As for Horseshoe Bay, they can expand it back as far as they want. Take a look at this picture: . It was taken in 1914, but that hill didn't stop them from expanding at the berth area; that CLIFF is vertical now. Why not do the same elsewhere along the highway if they need more capacity? They already doubled the terminal's capacity a few years ago (which included rock blasting), why not do it again if needed? It is possible....

[Ferryman]

They could expand more up the highway if they wanted to yes..but there's protesters upset as it is with the widening of the Sea to Sky along there because it's a park for Eagle viewing I believe, so it's hard to say if they would be able to get past the public to extend the terminal more along there.

[Doug]

ferryman said:

They could expand more up the highway if they wanted to yes..but there's protesters upset as it is with the widening of the Sea to Sky along there because it's a park for Eagle viewing I believe, so it's hard to say if they would be able to get past the public to extend the terminal more along there.

good grief the whiners. They are going to relocate a 2,000 car terminal just because of them with a price tag of over $100 million?

[Doug]

In reply to your post earlier Chris....

Someone said that route 2 should not go to Horseshoe Bay anymore but to another part of Vancouver so the traffic doesn't get backed up the highway

Why should anyone care that traffic gets backed up; it's at the end of d**n highway!

It would be pointless to make another terminal in the Richmond area by the Airport because Tsawwassen isn't that far away from there.

Right. While a terminal in Richmond might benefit us in the Valley, the majority of passengers to Vancouver Island are from out of the Fraser Valley; what about people coming down from Squamish? What about the people coming up from the States? By building a terminal there, people coming from all around would be forced to drive through busy traffic. The two terminals in the corners of the Valley are good locations if you ask me.