Mill Bay Ferry anniversary

[Koastal Karl]

Anyone want a good deal you can take the Mill Bay ferry for only $8.00 car/driver compared to the full price of 15.75 up until December 10th to celebrate their 80th anniversay.

Here is the link to the news release
www.bcferries.com/news/files/04-089millbay80th.pdf

[Doug]

Maybe it's being celebrated because it will be the last birthday celebration on the route as it may be abandoned in the future. Sure, they could keep A ferry there for emergency use of highway closures, but I don't think it should be a regular service operated by BC Ferries. Maybe the BC Government will buy it? ;D

[Ferryman]

Woah 80 years that route has been around way longer than I ever thought with the current Mill Bay Ferry being built in 1956.

[Koastal Karl]

Yeah that route has been around a long time. I only been on that route once and that was years ago. Back then I dident expect that ferry to still be running to this day. But I guess the Coho is still running after all these years. The Mill Bay is 3 years older than the Coho and does alot more sailings too.

Maybe if the BC Goverment buys the route they will use the old Albion ferries or one of them if there is going to be a bridge built across the fraser.

[Fenklebaum]

The number of Mill Bay bashers here stuns and appalls me. What's wrong with an old boat? Nothing! What's wrong with the run? Nothing! Sheesh.

[kylefossett]

the route may not make money but it is a nice little run. something for the tourist to do

[Cascade Ferry Service]

Route 12 is not dead - we are after it and also Route 4 & 5 and 5a.

You just need a little bit of patience. People in places know of the project -

[Ian]

Have the mill bay run but please i beg of you, do not take the swartz bay fulford or the swartz bay outer gulf islands. Please keep bc ferries together not split them up into a bunch of smaller systems.

[Ferryman]

Hmm, I can kind of really see BCF contracting all of the Gulf Island routes out and only running the major routes. That wouldn't be good after how long it took to get all of the routes together into the same company

[NMcKay]

the milly bay is cute. she almost looks like a modified K class.

[Ferryman]

Yeah she's a neat little ship. It's funny with her small single ended bridge.

[NMcKay]

she resembles a k class. with a lane of cars on the outside of the bridge superstructure.

[Curtis]

I was surprised when I found out the Mill Bay is a single ender

[Koastal Karl]

She is?? hmm I always thought she was a double ender. Double enders are the way to go!

[NMcKay]

shes got a single ended wheelhouse

[cascade]

Ian, We would love to keep it all together - all the routes - but it appears that BCFS has other ideas. So we are interested - and that is what we have been working on since August 2004 - when it was put out in the public domain - or in Lloyds of London that ALL the routes are up for bid's.
I do know that a lot of European Players are looking at the 5 major routes. They are also talking about bringing in "Yield Management" - which is you book in advance - cheaper rates- Yea we know all about the booking fee problems you have had - but don't have that problem in Europe. (Better web -software IT systems here)
We are only interested in been a niche players - and looking at the short runs - where we can standardize the vessels and increase the trips - at a reduced fare.

[Ian]

This company "Cascade" does it have a website, no offense but you sound as if you have no intrest towards the British Colombia Ferry Corporation. Where are you based out of?, have you ever traveled bc ferries.

[NMcKay]

your right ian. i see no reference anywhere (google, webcrawler, msn) to a Cascade Ferries.

[Cascade]

Ian & habourlynx

I see that some of you know a little bit of the history on the BCFS. So I'll let you in - I was born in Sidney - Resthaven Hospital - went to school there also. I most likely have more sea water running thru my veins than most people. Check out the history of 1920's Ferry system in BC and you will see where the name Cascade comes from. I come from that family. Hence we were one of the six founders of the system - you are talking about. You may have guessed that I live in Europe - London. I also am in Shipping - owner 2x Handymax Dry Bulk Cargo vessels.

As for the BC Ferries - I more than most people are very pissed off and upset at what they have done to it over the last 20 years. When they wanted to close down Route 12 I spoke to people at BCFS and told them we would take over this route and two others - as they claim to be making massive losses. Since late 80's I have been following the up's & downs of the system.

Now that it is out in the open - concerning a number of routes on the market - we have come out - also. Yes I would prefer if it is all still "state" owned, but as they have made a complete mess of it over the years - then it is better that someone else - who cares about the local community and people has a go - it can not be any worst. We don't want Aid or sub and NO we will not raise fares - in fact we will lower them. The service will be a lot better than it currently is also.

We beleive we have found the vessel to handle the short routes, and Yes it will not be build in BC - but is working in Europe and doing very well.

We have been following very closely all the postings on this site - and a lot of you know a hell of a lot about the ferry system and care about it - we would like very much to work with people like yourselfs.

Yes we do have a web site - and no it is not operational - load testing right now.... but you will be the first to try it out.

We would be very happy to answer any quesation you wish to ask......

[NMcKay]

what ship are you planning to use?

[cascade]

Habourlynx

We plan on using a new design called FerryCat 120 - she will take 112 cars. Currently 2x are working in Turkey and 1x in Norway. THey are built in Norway.

We are reviewing some software that your company is currently using. Small world isn't it?

Would you like a picture ?

[Curtis]

Probably the whole board would like to see it. Maybe? I know I would

[cascade]

I tried to cut & paste in 3 pictures - as we have mountains of info - pictures ect..... somehow it doesn't work. Will have another try.
This site listed below is very much like your site - Board.

They have a few pictures of the first one - working in Norway. She is called MV Stavanger. So far to date she has saved over 15Million K in operating costs - BUT increased crews levels.

The main thing / difference - is the bridge is 180.

www.stp-norway.com/STP/FISKE/Stavanger/Stavanger.htm

The other 2 working in Turkey - are doing the same - in fact Turkey has order 3 more vessels. One thing to remember none of these companies receive any sub from there government - they make all there rev on Fares. And the fares are NOT high - cheaper per mile than BCFS - so it can be done.

Also she is not bad to look at.

[NMcKay]

theres one problem. why would a ship like that need to have a 180 rotating bridge? shes built exactly like the Klatawa just bigger, and the klatawa has a 360 degree view. guess what you have to do? turn around. i know its a novel concept. but those ships seem to work pretty well. and there was a design out a few years ago (contact me @ [e-mail] for more info) that would case close to 140 cars, yet only require a minimum crew of 6 she was a larger cousin of the Osprey 2000. my dad was was working on the project for a while, but gave up when BCF wasn't going to seel routes out

[cascade]

Habourlynx,

Did you have a look at the link? the Bridge is 360 like you mentioned. Have a look at other links within the STP site and you will see pic's of it been built. The Turkish version has a much bigger Sun Deck. We are looking at about same size Sun deck - walk around as the Turkish ver. Same lenght & Gear. The bridge layout is about the best we have seen anywhere. It is pure drive on - drive off. I know about the two vessels you have mentioned.

One thing you haven't mentioned - is the amount of cars on this vessel and if you know route 12 and the other routes we are interested in - then how and where are you going to stack them up? simple - we are building out into the inlet a new terminal - done all the time in Europe - but not in BC.

You will see that she is purely built for short runs - so is perfect for the routes we want.