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Post by landlocked on Jan 3, 2010 10:18:55 GMT -8
Whoever wrote the quiz needs to be aware of a couple of corrections. The two boats hadn't run on compressed natural gas since about 2001, after which time the entire system including all tanks and piping was removed. At the time there was no supplier that could provide a cost effective and reliable system, and the reliability of the operation (up time) outweighed continued experimentation with natural gas.
Klatawa Teen is right about the Vesuvius vs the Kahloke. The vessel usually available to Albion during their refit times was the Klitsa. It in fact spent the most amount of actual time at Albion (service days), and I would be willing to bet that Vesuvius came in second.
Interesting note about the Klitsa. Once after spending about 3 weeks at Albion, we tallied up the number of vehicles and passengers carried during her time at Albion. In the end it was determined that she in fact had carried more passengers and vehicles in that three weeks than she would in an entire year on the Thetis/Kuper run!
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Post by fargowolf on Jan 3, 2010 19:00:40 GMT -8
I'm curious as to how the Trans Canada Trail has been affected. The Albion Ferry was where the trail crossed from the north, to south side of the river. I'm guessing that it's been rerouted to the new bridge.
As for the very thought of scrapping the ferries... That borders on blasphemy in my opinion. They'd be better to sell them. I'm sure there'd be opportunities to run them elsewhere.
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Mill Bay
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Long Suffering Bosun
Posts: 2,886
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Post by Mill Bay on May 6, 2010 21:58:02 GMT -8
Former Albion ferries berth on the Fort Langley side:
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Post by EGfleet on Jun 15, 2010 16:06:33 GMT -8
Albion ferries going nowhere, fast Maple Ridge News By Phil Melnychuk - Maple Ridge News Published: June 15, 2010 3:00 PM Updated: June 15, 2010 3:46 PM
There they sit, abandoned in a ferry slip that’s been closed for a year.
The MV Kulleet and the MV Klatawa that criss-crossed the Fraser River for 50 years, carrying motorists between Maple Ridge and Langley, became obsolete the day the Golden Ears Bridge opened, June 16, 2009.
And judging by the response in the market, they’re still obsolete.
The two vessels, tied up to the Albion dock are in great shape, but still sit unsold, rusting in the river.
TransLink spokesman Drew Snider said the ships have received “nibbles” from possible buyers, but no serious offers.
The ships are selling for $1.1 million and last year were even advertised on CraigsList.
At one point, Washington State Ferries and Whatcom county were supposed to have been interested. But both agencies dispelled those rumours quickly.
Another time, someone in Prince Rupert was supposed to have been interested, and supposedly the government of the Northwest Territories wanted them for Great Slave Lake. But those were just rumours.
And there are no serious offers on the table now, so TransLink continues to maintain the ships, taking them for a spin once in awhile to keep them seaworthy. There’s no consideration yet of selling them for scrap, Snider said.
“We’re still holding out, for the time being.”
The same goes for the Albion ferry terminal on River Road where, drivers sometimes waited hours for their ship to come in. That lot is currently up for short-term lease, but TransLink won’t dispose of the property until Metro Vancouver parks or Maple Ridge district have figured out what they want to do in the area.
“We want to make sure whatever is done on the property works with whatever they come up with in their plan.”
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Post by lmtengs on Jun 15, 2010 18:57:31 GMT -8
Kinda sad if y'ask me... I dropped by the dock last week, and they're just sitting there bobbing up and down with the tides...
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lifc
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Post by lifc on Jun 26, 2010 9:58:47 GMT -8
The other day I went to the Broker's website and it said they were sold. I wonder if it was just because the listing ran out.
With our recent failure of the Whatcom Chief, it would be nice to have a back up boat for us here on Lummi Island and in Skagit County, but, there is little bit of Legislation called the Jones Act which precludes the operating of non U.S. built Vessels on our domestic routes. As you can now observe with the Gulf oil spill, our National Government is determined not to lift it for a catastrophe, doubt if we could get an exemption for this.
These boats do not have the ultimate weather ability that the old Chief has, but sure would work well other times and especially for Skagit County on the Guemes run. To me the 1.1m price does not seem that bad, it would likely cost over 10m to build a new one.
Hope someone buys them it would be a shame to see them turned into rebar.
Jim
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Post by lmtengs on Jul 26, 2010 19:00:41 GMT -8
Today I drove past the terminal on the Albion (Maple Ridge) side of the River and I saw something rather cool: There were cars driving off the ferry, and you could clearly hear the engines of the ferry revving. The radar was spinning too. I'm not sure which of the two ferries that I saw, but I counted seven cars driving off. What was going on? Surely they wouldn't just put seven cars on the ferry for no reason. There's no room to turn around on the ferry either, and they were DRIVING off, not backing off, so unless they backed on, they boarded from the other side, in which case they were coming from Fort Langley... I didn't see anything in the news about them making occasional trips, and the compound was still locked. Maybe Translink had a few cars go across as a short cut?
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Mill Bay
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Long Suffering Bosun
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Post by Mill Bay on Jul 31, 2010 21:47:58 GMT -8
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Post by lmtengs on Aug 1, 2010 10:43:21 GMT -8
Yep, It's been a year, and still people complain to city council and to the newspapers from both sides of the river to get at least one ferry back...
I'd try to insult someone right now, but I believe I'll let it sit in my throat until I meet him/her....
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Post by Retrovision on Aug 1, 2010 15:59:48 GMT -8
I do not know if this has been asked in our recent memory, but what is the longest number of sailing-waits that members and guests alike here have heard of?
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I never frequently rode the Albion Ferries, but more often than not while listening to radio traffic reports heard of upto a 9-sailing-wait in most recent times.
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Post by lmtengs on Aug 1, 2010 18:53:27 GMT -8
I do not know if this has been asked in our recent memory, but what is the longest number of sailing-waits that members and guests alike here have heard of? - I never frequently rode the Albion Ferries, but more often than not while listening to radio traffic reports heard of upto a 9-sailing-wait in most recent times. The longest sailing wait that I can remember was 21... that's a 5 hours 15 minute wait. I know that I had to wait 3 hours for the ferry once... oober-painful.
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Neil
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Post by Neil on Aug 1, 2010 21:10:05 GMT -8
The longest sailing wait that I can remember was 21... that's a 5 hours 15 minute wait. I know that I had to wait 3 hours for the ferry once... oober-painful. There was never any such thing as a 21 sailing wait for the Albion ferry, for two reasons: one, that there would be no room to store anywhere near that number of cars, and two, as Paul says, anyone in their right mind would drive around in hours less. Five and six sailing waits were common in rush hours, but that was about the practical limit.
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Post by Scott on Aug 1, 2010 21:13:49 GMT -8
I think I heard of a 9 sailing wait at least. And the reason it was that bad was because the Port Mann bridge was either closed or severely backed up and they didn't have that option. It rarely happened, but that's when the worst waits happened.
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Koastal Karl
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Been on every BC Ferry now!!!!!
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Post by Koastal Karl on Aug 2, 2010 8:30:27 GMT -8
Well yeah who would wait that long for a less than 5 min crossing when they could drive around in less time!
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Post by FerryDude2012 on Aug 2, 2010 11:01:09 GMT -8
Most people believe it's faster to take the Albion Ferry if their travelling to Maple Ridge, Mission or east on Hwy 7, rathern that going around on a busy highway, such as the Port Mann Bridge, or Hwy 11. Since the Golden Ears Bridge opened, the Albion Ferry's sailing waits have cut down to 2-3 sailing waits on average. Since it's closed, the Golden Ears Bridge has made it much more convenient for travellers and commuters.
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Post by lmtengs on Aug 2, 2010 12:05:06 GMT -8
The longest sailing wait that I can remember was 21... that's a 5 hours 15 minute wait. I know that I had to wait 3 hours for the ferry once... oober-painful. There was never any such thing as a 21 sailing wait for the Albion ferry, for two reasons: one, that there would be no room to store anywhere near that number of cars, and two, as Paul says, anyone in their right mind would drive around in hours less. Five and six sailing waits were common in rush hours, but that was about the practical limit. I am 100% sure that there was a 15 sailing wait once. As I said, I think I remember there being 21. I was told this by a grandparent who was living in Maple Ridge until 2003.
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Post by FerryDude2012 on Aug 3, 2010 15:05:18 GMT -8
If it was a 15 sailing wait, the lineup in Fort Langley would extend all the way to 88th Avenue at Glover Road. maps.google.ca/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Langley,+Ferry+Ramp,+British+Columbia&daddr=49.167675,-122.580643&geocode=FZNs7gIdOcSx-CnRJ8nk5NKFVDE0FY8lU0Ge3w%3B&hl=en&mra=dme&mrcr=0&mrsp=1&sz=13&sll=49.159445,-122.58849&sspn=0.053772,0.153637&ie=UTF8&ll=49.182489,-122.57&spn=0.053747,0.153637&z=13 If it was in Maple Ridge, it would obviously extend into Highway 7.
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Post by fargowolf on Aug 3, 2010 15:28:15 GMT -8
If it was a 15 sailing wait, the lineup in Fort Langley would extend all the way to 88th Avenue at Glover Road. maps.google.ca/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Langley,+Ferry+Ramp,+British+Columbia&daddr=49.167675,-122.580643&geocode=FZNs7gIdOcSx-CnRJ8nk5NKFVDE0FY8lU0Ge3w%3B&hl=en&mra=dme&mrcr=0&mrsp=1&sz=13&sll=49.159445,-122.58849&sspn=0.053772,0.153637&ie=UTF8&ll=49.182489,-122.57&spn=0.053747,0.153637&z=13 If it was in Maple Ridge, it would obviously extend into Highway 7. I remember traffic being backed up to just about that point in Ft. Langley. Can't remember what the reason was behind it... MVA I think. As for the Maple Ridge side, when the terminal was filled to capacity, traffic lined up west of the terminal along River Road.
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Post by FerryDude2012 on Aug 3, 2010 15:36:44 GMT -8
If it was a 15 sailing wait, the lineup in Fort Langley would extend all the way to 88th Avenue at Glover Road. maps.google.ca/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Langley,+Ferry+Ramp,+British+Columbia&daddr=49.167675,-122.580643&geocode=FZNs7gIdOcSx-CnRJ8nk5NKFVDE0FY8lU0Ge3w%3B&hl=en&mra=dme&mrcr=0&mrsp=1&sz=13&sll=49.159445,-122.58849&sspn=0.053772,0.153637&ie=UTF8&ll=49.182489,-122.57&spn=0.053747,0.153637&z=13 If it was in Maple Ridge, it would obviously extend into Highway 7. I remember traffic being backed up to just about that point in Ft. Langley. Can't remember what the reason was behind it... MVA I think. As for the Maple Ridge side, when the terminal was filled to capacity, traffic lined up west of the terminal along River Road. Thanks for the correction. I have never taken the Albion Ferry from Maple Ridge to Fort Langley, so I wasn't really sure. I also believe traffic lined up that far in the winter, when the Fraser River was frozen over with ice, so the ferries would travel at a slower speed, making less sailings, and eventually cancelling them.
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Post by fargowolf on Aug 3, 2010 17:47:56 GMT -8
No prob.
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D'Elete BC in NJ
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Dispensing gallons of useless information daily...
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Post by D'Elete BC in NJ on Sept 21, 2010 11:42:32 GMT -8
A quick note before the news story...this here thread should probably be moved to the retired ferries sub board. www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/09/20/bc-albion-ferry.html Albion ferries still await buyersThe two car ferries that were made obsolete by a new Metro Vancouver bridge over the Fraser River still have not been sold, 14 months after they went out of service. The Albion ferry service ended with the opening of the Golden Ears Bridge, but the transit authority TransLink cannot find a buyer for the vessels, for which it's paying about $5,000 a week in storage fees. TransLink is willing to give up the ferries for what it believes are bargain prices. "There's two of them, but they don't have to come as a set," spokesman Drew Snider said Monday. "They come for the low, low price of a million dollars each." The ferries, which each carry about 20 cars, began running between Fort Langley and the Albion area of Maple Ridge in 1957. In their 52 years of service, it's estimated the vessels made three million runs, covering a distance that's the equivalent of going to the moon and back 20 times, Snider said. For many commuters, the ferries were a quaint daily ritual and were free, but the occasional weather delays likely will not be missed. "The last year of running we were iced in here for eight days straight so we were shut right down," said the Albion ferry's former manager, John Stoneson. Business is not quite the same at Kingfisher's Waterfront Bar and Grill, a restaurant next to the closed ferry terminal on the Maple Ridge side. But the ambience has improved from the days of the constant engine hum of the ferries, said Kingfisher's co-owner Lori Hume. "It's lovely here," said Hume. "We have the seals, the fish. We have kayakers pull in. It's lovely, and it's so silent it's kind of surreal."
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Post by Scott (Former Account) on Sept 21, 2010 12:02:14 GMT -8
A quick note before the news story...this here thread should probably be moved to the retired ferries sub board. Done... The ferries, which each carry about 20 cars, began running between Fort Langley and the Albion area of Maple Ridge in 1957. In their 52 years of service, it's estimated the vessels made three million runs, covering a distance that's the equivalent of going to the moon and back 20 times, Snider said. The service may have started in 1957, but the Klatawa and Kulleet were not built until 1972...
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Post by lmtengs on Sept 21, 2010 15:26:56 GMT -8
How 'bout we all sell our cars and chip in the buy the Kulleet? Who cares about commuting! Quit your jobs and crew the new vehicle ferry from Port Alberni to Bamfield!
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Post by fargowolf on Sept 22, 2010 5:48:26 GMT -8
How 'bout we all sell our cars and chip in the buy the Kulleet? Who cares about commuting! Quit your jobs and crew the new vehicle ferry from Port Alberni to Bamfield! I'm in!!! ;D
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Kam
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Posts: 926
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Post by Kam on Sept 22, 2010 9:41:23 GMT -8
Done! ;D
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