Seaspan Ferries - photo & discussion thread

[Low Light Mike]

Carrier Princess arriving at Nanaimo on a gorgeous late-autumn day. She does an S-turn as she approaches the berth.








Full load today? No.







At berth with her old Active Pass / Swartz Bay buddies

[Low Light Mike]

The Seaspan berth at Nanaimo. From my memory, the berth structures / ramps / towers have not changed much since the CP day of the mid 1970's.

Pictures from January 2, 2010 (taken from the rooftop parking area of Port Place mall, shortly before security shooed me away)




and a pano-stitch of the yard, with the Spaulding twins trying to hide.


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close-up of the berth tower:

[Low Light Mike]

Here's a story about a new rail facility at Annacis Island. Does anyone know:
1) Who will be operating the rail barges from this new terminal?
2) Where the other terminal will be on the Vancouver Island side?

Or is this just an expansion of Seaspan's service?

Terminal may boost Island freight traffic
New rail barge facility on Annacis Island links Vancouver Island to larger markets

Dustin Walker
The Daily News
Tuesday, January 05, 2010


A rail barge terminal that began operation last weekend near Delta will help Vancouver Island's struggling railway system attract more freight business, say the operators of the railway.

The $11-million Annacis Rail Marine Terminal, located at Annacis Island, will connect freight traffic along the former E&N Railway -- now called Southern Railway of Vancouver Island -- with other major railway networks in North America, said Ken Doiron, VP Business Development for Southern Railway of British Columbia, which operates the line.

Doiron said the new facility will help attract more freight customers to the railway, business that is essential for it to be viable.

According to the Rule of 100, a generally accepted economic formula for short-line railways, a minimum of 100 freight cars per mile, per year, are required before a line can make a profit. The old E&N route now averages about 6.6 cars per mile.

Doiron wouldn't provide exact statistics on the amount of freight traffic in 2009 and 2008, but said levels have been flat at about 1,000 cars per year.

He said the rail marine terminal, built with the help of $4.6 million in federal funding, will provide customers with the ability to compare prices for shipping freight with other railways while also improving transit times.

"But with the increased competition and improvements in transit times, we now have a product we can go to customers with," said Doiron.

"It strengths the overall viability of the railway to do many things."

Graham Bruce, executive director of the Island Corridor Foundation, which owns the railway, said the new facility puts "Vancouver Island within the marketplace of North America."

The ICF has estimated there is a potential market of 22,000 rail cars worth of freight each year on Vancouver Island. It has been lobbying governments for upgrades to the tracks to bring it up to North American standards, estimated to cost $103.8 million.

[e-mail]
© The Daily News (Nanaimo) 2010

from here: www2.canada.com/nanaimodailynews/news/story.html?id=5e0a0938-7f31-495e-a003-80c8d682ebdc

[WettCoast]

I suspect that this is Seaspan and that there will be no new Vancouver Island terminal.

The sorry condition of virtually all of the road bed on the former E&N puts its future in grave doubt. There is only one route to salvation that I can see, that being the need to collectively reduce our 'carbon foot print'. I understand that steel wheels moving on steel rails requires much less energy then moving the same freight over the same distance with rubber tires on asphalt. In short, the railways are supposed to be greener.

[Neil]

Jan 5, 2010 8:23:29 GMT -8 Low Light Mike said:

Here's a story about a new rail facility at Annacis Island. Does anyone know:
1) Who will be operating the rail barges from this new terminal?
2) Where the other terminal will be on the Vancouver Island side?
Or is this just an expansion of Seaspan's service?

It's all Washington Group, whether they call it Southern Railway, or Seaspan. Don't they have rail loading facilities at Chemainus, as well as Nanaimo?

I don't know why this facility on Annacis is needed, when they can load railcars at Tilbury. Perhaps it's a capacity issue, although present volumes don't seem to indicate that. Perhaps landlocked has more insight into this.

Perhaps this is an indication of where Washington Group plans to focus in the future. If more freight is transported to and from the Island by rail, that would seem to mean less by truck, which would cannibalize their Seaspan ferry operations. Maybe they're planning to focus on rail, and eventually abandon truck trailer operations to BC Ferries, who apparently are serious about expanding their new venture.

I wonder if David Hahn will be tempted in future to bring up this federal contribution to the new railcar loading dock, when Seaspan next complains about the difficulty of competing with a subsidized rival.

So, my hometown now has another 'port' connecting it to Vancouver Island. Whether we're talking passenger, truck, or rail, Delta is the biggest mainland connection, from Tsawwassen, Tilbury, and Annacis. I'll have to locate this new terminal and see what they're using for vessels, and post some shots.

[Low Light Mike]

Here is a link to forum member Plansea's page on Seaspan pictures.

There are only a few pictures here, but they include one that is an on-deck shot of Seaspan's Coastal-Spirit barge.

www.pbase.com/portwelland/seaspan_coastal_intermodal_company

[Kahloke]

Those are good photos. Thanks for sharing that link. It also reminded me that I captured a few pictures of some Seaspan action on my recent Route 1/Route 2 trip.

Princess Superior at Swartz Bay

[Scott (Former Account)]

The ramp at Seaspan's Tilbury terminal collapsed yesterday, killing a worker...

More information here.

[Low Light Mike]

The Seaspan intermodal terminal in Nanaimo, as seen from Jack Point.

[lmtengs]

Today while in North Van, I noticed that Carrier Princess is sitting at the WMG dock. Is she in refit?

[Low Light Mike]

Ms. Doris Seaspan (nee Yorke). Photographed from the Port of Nanaimo's visiting-vessel pier, on an early summer's morning.

- Doris berths bow-in at Nanaimo. Upon departure, she just backs straight out, and then does an on-the-spot turn-around.



















- Doris and a Harbour Air DeHavilland Otter.

[lmtengs]

Jun 23, 2010 19:52:55 GMT -8 Low Light Mike said:

Ms. Doris Seaspan (nee Yorke). Photographed from the Port of Nanaimo's visiting-vessel pier, on an early summer's morning.

Seaspan Doris, not Doris Seaspan, just for the record

By the way, on the Arctic Hooper, there's what looks like a tower coming out of the top of her. Is the wheelhouse in there, or is the row of windows lower down her wheelhouse? It looks to me like the high-up area was added after she was built, and that maybe in the past the lower area was her wheelhouse, but not anymore. Am I correct?

[Neil]

Can't help but notice, again, the difference between Seaspan's vessels and BC Ferries. The 'Doris is only three years younger than the Queen of Burnaby, but look at the apparent lack of rust. Same with all of Seaspan's vessels, for the most part. Yet they don't carry passengers, and don't have to worry about impressing tourists. I know part of it can be explained by the fact that Seaspan's boats have so much down time, and people do sometimes make too much of the superficial rust we see on our 'public' carrier, but still...

[lmtengs]

Jun 23, 2010 21:07:42 GMT -8 Neil said:

Can't help but notice, again, the difference between Seaspan's vessels and BC Ferries. The 'Doris is only three years younger than the Queen of Burnaby, but look at the apparent lack of rust.

Are you kidding? The 'Doris looks like she was built in the 80s, maybe in the '90s!!!
Wow, maybe we should rally to get BC Ferries ownership changed to Washington Marine Group...

[Low Light Mike]

Jun 23, 2010 21:09:55 GMT -8 @lmtengs said:

Jun 23, 2010 21:07:42 GMT -8 Neil said:

Can't help but notice, again, the difference between Seaspan's vessels and BC Ferries. The 'Doris is only three years younger than the Queen of Burnaby, but look at the apparent lack of rust.

Are you kidding? The 'Doris looks like she was built in the 80s, maybe in the '90s!!!
Wow, maybe we should rally to get BC Ferries ownership changed to Washington Marine Group...

- here is the vessel info page.
forms.cta-otc.gc.ca/sins-cvis/navire-ship_eng.cfm?ShipID=328327

.....and if you look back in this thread, you might find the launch movie of her male-sister "Greg Yorke".

[lmtengs]

One of the Seaspan tugs near Duke Point

[WettCoast]

Carrier Princess with Spirit of Vancouver Island (BC Ferries) in Active Pass - 19 July 2010


© WCK-JST by Jim Thorne, on Flickr

[Retrovision]

Jan 5, 2010 8:23:29 GMT -8 Low Light Mike said:

Here's a story about a new rail facility at Annacis Island. Does anyone know:
1) Who will be operating the rail barges from this new terminal?
2) Where the other terminal will be on the Vancouver Island side?

Or is this just an expansion of Seaspan's service?

I think that I read in Western Mariner magazine, which I have a subscription to, a while back that Seaspan Coastal Intermodal had plans to move their Tilbury terminal to Annacis Island, and, though I can't remember exactly why, there was very specific reasoning given. I'll try to find the issue and relay the information here.

Jan 5, 2010 23:10:25 GMT -8 Neil said:

So, my hometown now has another 'port' connecting it to Vancouver Island. Whether we're talking passenger, truck, or rail, Delta is the biggest mainland connection, from Tsawwassen, Tilbury, and Annacis. I'll have to locate this new terminal and see what they're using for vessels, and post some shots.

And pretty darn close, though not within the boundaries of our Corporation of Delta, is the Van Isle Barge Services terminal ( maps.google.ca/maps?ie=UTF8&t=h&ll=49.193526,-122.907454&spn=0.005202,0.009602&z=17 ) just upriver in Surrey and nearly across the Fraser from the northern tip of Annacis Island (Shoal Point).

-

What brought me to this thread in the first place, however, came about when I was doing research into the background of some workboats that I've photographed recently. I think it hasn't been mentioned yet - and it's not a big deal but a little interesting - that Seaspan Coastal Intermodal itself only actually holds the ownership of the Carrier Princess, Princess Superior and Push Barge Coastal Spirit. The ownership of the rest of the fleet that SCI runs (despite paint schemes that include reference to SCI) - the Seaspan Greg, Seaspan Doris and the Coastal Spirit's articulating tug Seaspan Challenger - is actually held by Seaspan International. I know that it's basically semantics, but it certainly caught my eye.

I discovered this with reference from both Western Mariner ( eagleharbour.com/ ) magazine's 2010 Western Workboat Directory in their July issue and Transport Canada's Vessel Registration Query System ( wwwapps.tc.gc.ca/Saf-Sec-Sur/4/vrqs-srib/ ). Also interesting to note from these two sources are a few other details such as listing of vessel types and discrepancies between them, among others:

- As most people know, but deserves mentioning anyways, the Princess Superior is still registered in Thunder Bay, Ontario.

-Transport Canada lists the Carrier Princess as "FERRY - OTHER" and Princess Superior as "FERRY - PASSENGER/TRAIN", while Western Mariner lists them both as, get this, "Self-Propelled Trailer & Railcar Barges".

-TC lists the Seaspan Greg as "BARGE - OTHER" and the Seaspan Doris as "GENERAL CARGO", while WM lists them both as "Self-Propelled Trailer Ferries".

[Low Light Mike]

I did a day of ferry-riding on 8/26/2010, and I saw plenty of working-freight during the day:
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I met up with the busy Carrier Princess twice today.
- in the early morning on her Tilbury - Nanaimo run.


- and then in the afternoon on her Tilbury - Swartz Bay run. She came out from the river, and then turned behind us (Route 30 Queen of Alberni) to head for Active Pass.










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At Swartz Bay, I saw the Princess Superior:




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And near Entrance Island, I saw the Seaspan Challenger / Coastal Spirit combo:






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At Nanaimo harbour, I saw Seaspan Doris:


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[Kahloke]

Flug - Great pics of the various Seaspan vessels. It reminded me that I forgot to post the one I took of Princess Superior earlier this month while on board Coastal Inspiration en-route to Duke Point. We overtook her out in the strait. She was headed into Nanaimo.

[mrdot]

vueing these pics. of carrier princess gives me another trip down memory lane, as I took passage on her when she was a new vessel on the nanaimo route, the last cpr princess! back then she had a functioning passenger deck, which is just storage room now as she operates as a truck ferry only. mr,dot.

[FerryDude2012]

Carrier Princess docked at Swartz Bay:

[WettCoast]

Does anyone know if a Flickr 'group' site exists for photos of Seaspan ferries? If not, does anyone have a recommendation for some other appropriate group(s) on Flickr?

[FerryDude2012]

No, there isn't a group for Seaspan Vessels on Flickr yet. However, you could start a group dedicated to the Seaspan ferries.
There's also the "Global Tug" group:
www.flickr.com/groups/globaltugs/

Alternatively, there's the "Ferries" group:
www.flickr.com/groups/ferries/
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EDIT:
Realizing that there's no group for Seaspan yet, I have made a group on Flickr for Seaspan Vessels only. You may place all your Seaspan photos there:
www.flickr.com/groups/seaspan/

[WettCoast]

Thanks for setting that group site up on Flickr. I have uploaded some of my Seaspan stuff there just a few minutes ago. Later I will add more, including some of my brother's (Mr. DOT).


Carrier Princess in Active Pass - 19 July 2010
This is from my Seaspan set on Flickr.