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Post by dofd on Mar 12, 2019 19:29:52 GMT -8
BC Ferries' website now has a page for this project, with opportunities for customer feed back. There's also some small details about what they're looking at for capacity of the design: www.bcferries.com/about/projects/nextgen.htmlAs an aside, the website states that for BC Ferries' AEQ capacity calculations, they assume that everyone is driving a Ford F150. Weird, but I guess at least they'll never overbook reservation space. So I just looked up sales of the F-150 in Canada. 145,694 which was 7 per cent of all auto sales. Then you add in sales for the Ram (84,854), Silverado (55,334), Tundra (11,738) and Titan (5,445). Plus the larger versions of those truck, vans and large SUVs. When I go to the island, I always take the truck over the car. (same price)
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Post by Blue Bus Fan on Mar 12, 2019 21:09:54 GMT -8
I have some ideas that BC Ferries is wanting to doing are kinda terrible such as combing wheelchairs, family washing rooms into 6, spa and barber shop. But I love some ideas such as outdoor activities, selling wine at giftship, more technology aboard.
How I think these vessel will be assigned? 1 and 2 assignmented to route 2. 3 and 4 assignment to route 1 with 4 being the spare. 5 assignment to route 30.
I could see see these vessels being second generation Coastal Class since BC Ferries mention similar design to Coastal Class.
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Post by Starsteward on Mar 13, 2019 9:54:17 GMT -8
I have some ideas that BC Ferries is wanting to doing are kinda terrible such as combing wheelchairs, family washing rooms into 6, spa and barber shop. But I love some ideas such as outdoor activities, selling wine at giftship, more technology aboard. How I think these vessel will be assigned? 1 and 2 assignmented to route 2. 3 and 4 assignment to route 1 with 4 being the spare. 5 assignment to route 30. I could see see these vessels being second generation Coastal Class since BC Ferries mention similar design to Coastal Class. Some rather interesting ideas for on-board amenities 'Blue Bus Fan' but I wouldn't hold my breath for the advent of wine sales at the gift shop. There are many 'issues' associated with liquor sales onboard, thus I doubt whether or not BCFS would want to open that can of worms. In my humble opinion, the way BCFS treats liquor sales on the northern routes does nothing to promote those routes as 'tourist-friendly', nor does it say much for the confidence that BCFS has with its general travelling public to enjoy spirits other than in the dining room where one can make such purchases. We may never see another cocktail lounge on a northern route vessel since the lounge was hauled out of the forward lounge area on the 'QPR' many moons ago. ( I confess I'm not aware of what was available on the 'Queen of the North'). European Ferries we're not. As for the implementation of more 'outdoor' activities, not too sure as to what might be added to make the relatively short southern routes more passenger-friendly.
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Post by timmyc on Mar 14, 2019 14:21:20 GMT -8
A crisp refreshing pint of beer, on a lovely summer's day on the deck...one can dream.
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ProudCanuck
Chief Steward
Champ Car - Gone, but not forgotten!
Posts: 242
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Post by ProudCanuck on Mar 15, 2019 10:36:51 GMT -8
Does anyone understand what they refer to as a convertible car deck?
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Post by WettCoast on Mar 15, 2019 10:40:53 GMT -8
Does anyone understand what they refer to as a convertible car deck? Used only in the summer for parking of 'convertibles', you know the kind of car that lets you roll down the top for wind.
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Post by Starsteward on Mar 15, 2019 10:54:08 GMT -8
Does anyone understand what they refer to as a convertible car deck? Used only in the summer for parking of 'convertibles', you know the kind of car that lets you roll down the top for wind. LOL, What have you added to your morning coffee there 'WettCoast'? I don't think 'ProudCanuck' is going to buy that description.
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ProudCanuck
Chief Steward
Champ Car - Gone, but not forgotten!
Posts: 242
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Post by ProudCanuck on Mar 16, 2019 7:19:33 GMT -8
Used only in the summer for parking of 'convertibles', you know the kind of car that lets you roll down the top for wind. LOL, What have you added to your morning coffee there 'WettCoast'? I don't think 'ProudCanuck' is going to buy that description. Nope... I'm not buying that! LOL
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Post by OneEighthMaster on Mar 18, 2019 19:48:55 GMT -8
Does anyone understand what they refer to as a convertible car deck? IIRC in a previous interview, Mark Collins has stated that new ferry builds have to be adaptable to an expected reduction in vehicle traffic that will result from self-driving cars and short-term rentals - e.g., a self-driving car picks you up from home, deposits you at the terminal, then a different car picks you up from the other side. They anticipate that, over the functional life of the ferry (~50 years), it is possible or likely that this kind of sea-change will occur, and in that case they want to have the extraneous vehicle deck space pre-wired and pre-plumbed for conversion into passenger space. 400 AEQ and 1600 pax capacity changes to 250 AEQ and 2400 pax, for instance.
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Post by Blue Bus Fan on Mar 18, 2019 20:36:32 GMT -8
Does anyone understand what they refer to as a convertible car deck? IIRC in a previous interview, Mark Collins has stated that new ferry builds have to be adaptable to an expected reduction in vehicle traffic that will result from self-driving cars and short-term rentals - e.g., a self-driving car picks you up from home, deposits you at the terminal, then a different car picks you up from the other side. They anticipate that, over the functional life of the ferry (~50 years), it is possible or likely that this kind of sea-change will occur, and in that case they want to have the extraneous vehicle deck space pre-wired and pre-plumbed for conversion into passenger space. 400 AEQ and 1600 pax capacity changes to 250 AEQ and 2400 pax, for instance. I through that they where 2400 pax from the get-go.
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Post by Dane on Mar 18, 2019 21:36:01 GMT -8
That was an example, not literal numbers.
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Post by jwjsamster on Apr 9, 2019 6:20:40 GMT -8
Do we have any idea how soon we will see renders of these new vessels? It didn't take that long with the Salish vessels as well as the new minor class ones.
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Post by Dane on Apr 28, 2019 15:29:08 GMT -8
BC Ferries is going to have a lot of examples to demonstrate the necessity of an extra major vessel after this Spring. The SoBC out for at least a week with storm damage, the Surrey out for a few - the later delaying a refit which will also have some spill over effect.
Amazing we have gone so long without extra capacity.
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Post by markkarj on May 30, 2019 11:01:30 GMT -8
Does anyone understand what they refer to as a convertible car deck? They'll make the top passenger decks so they fold up to have the top car deck open... kind of like Skydome in Toronto
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Post by Blue Bus Fan on Jun 9, 2019 16:27:30 GMT -8
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Post by markkarj on Jul 7, 2019 14:20:31 GMT -8
Let's assume for the moment that BC Ferries decides to adapt the Coastal class plans into a Coastal Mark II.
What do you think would be the big changes? I assume dual fuel is the most obvious one.
Would they retain the diesel/LNG generators powering electric propellers?
What other big changes would be required?
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Jess
Deckhand
Posts: 59
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Post by Jess on Jul 9, 2019 14:51:30 GMT -8
So here are the things that I would like to see with these new BC Ferries. I would like to see a car capacity of 500 cars because in the future there will be even more people riding BC Ferries to get over to Vancouver Island and they are going to need to have the new vessels to have a bigger car capacity than 360 Cars. The new ferries should also have a bigger Passenger Capacity and I know this might sound crazy but I think the necessary Passenger Capacity would be 2500-3000. The reason for that is because I sometimes can't find any seats on a Coastal Class ferry and it is definitely not easy to find seats on one of the C-Class Ferries and if they have to close all vehicle decks during the Sailing then they will probably need to have a bigger Passenger Capacity than 2000. I think for the ferry it's self and what it will run on I think they should either make it so it would run on Natural Gas like the Spirit of BC and the Spirit of Vancouver Island or the other option is they could Diesel-Electric and maybe even make it fully electric in the future if that will even be possible in 30-35 years. I would also like them to instead try to make them actual new vessels instead of more up to date Coastal Class Ferries. For amenities I am expecting to see the usual Coastal Cafe, Coast Cafe Express Sitka Coffee Place or Arbutus Coffee Bar, Seawest Lounge, Passages Gift Shop, Kids Zone Washrooms and Elevators. Some other amenities that I would like to see is the Pacific Buffet on all 5 vessles because I do know that the Pacific Buffet is meant to only be available on Route 1 but Route 2 is also really popular and is almost as busy as Route 1 and at this point they might as well add it to Route 2 and for Route 30, I will get to that a bit later. I think for the Snack Bar seeing that if they were to put the Pacific Buffet on all 5 of them then they might as well put either the Coast Cafe Express or the Arbutus Coffee Bar but I think they are probably going to do Arbutus Coffee Bar because I don't really see the Coast Cafe Express on any of the newer ferries and they even removed from the Spirit Class Vessels with the Arbutus Coffee Bar. I also think they should bring back the Video Zone to these new vessels but instead of Arcade Machines they should put Game Consoles Like Nintendo Switch Xbox One and PS4 well probably by the mid 2020s it will be PS5 and Xbox Scarlett. For the Seating I would like to see TV's for all seating areas. One thing that I would like to see too is not every sailing is busy and maybe for non busy sailings they would be able to close certain areas on the vessel during the sailing. And finally I hope they are built here in BC.
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Neil
Voyager
Posts: 7,175
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Post by Neil on Jul 9, 2019 21:44:11 GMT -8
So here are the things that I would like to see with these new BC Ferries. I would like to see a car capacity of 500 cars because in the future there will be even more people riding BC Ferries to get over to Vancouver Island and they are going to need to have the new vessels to have a bigger car capacity than 360 Cars. The new ferries should also have a bigger Passenger Capacity and I know this might sound crazy but I think the necessary Passenger Capacity would be 2500-3000. The reason for that is because I sometimes can't find any seats on a Coastal Class ferry and it is definitely not easy to find seats on one of the C-Class Ferries and if they have to close all vehicle decks during the Sailing then they will probably need to have a bigger Passenger Capacity than 2000. I think for the ferry it's self and what it will run on I think they should either make it so it would run on Natural Gas like the Spirit of BC and the Spirit of Vancouver Island or the other option is they could Diesel-Electric and maybe even make it fully electric in the future if that will even be possible in 30-35 years. I would also like them to instead try to make them actual new vessels instead of more up to date Coastal Class Ferries. For amenities I am expecting to see the usual Coastal Cafe, Coast Cafe Express Sitka Coffee Place or Arbutus Coffee Bar, Seawest Lounge, Passages Gift Shop, Kids Zone Washrooms and Elevators. Some other amenities that I would like to see is the Pacific Buffet on all 5 vessles because I do know that the Pacific Buffet is meant to only be available on Route 1 but Route 2 is also really popular and is almost as busy as Route 1 and at this point they might as well add it to Route 2 and for Route 30, I will get to that a bit later. I think for the Snack Bar seeing that if they were to put the Pacific Buffet on all 5 of them then they might as well put either the Coast Cafe Express or the Arbutus Coffee Bar but I think they are probably going to do Arbutus Coffee Bar because I don't really see the Coast Cafe Express on any of the newer ferries and they even removed from the Spirit Class Vessels with the Arbutus Coffee Bar. I also think they should bring back the Video Zone to these new vessels but instead of Arcade Machines they should put Game Consoles Like Nintendo Switch Xbox One and PS4 well probably by the mid 2020s it will be PS5 and Xbox Scarlett. For the Seating I would like to see TV's for all seating areas. One thing that I would like to see too is not every sailing is busy and maybe for non busy sailings they would be able to close certain areas on the vessel during the sailing. And finally I hope they are built here in BC. I don't really have a big interest in the smaller issues like what specific food and marketing options might be offered. What you need to keep in mind is if BC Ferries goes to the gigantic vessels you're suggesting, that means a considerable strain on terminal facilities, and also highway infrastructure. The plan they've articulated indicates vessels a bit bigger than what they currently have... and that makes sense. Frequency of service with manageable capacity is probably the way to go.
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Post by futureferrydriver on Jul 10, 2019 7:25:43 GMT -8
So here are the things that I would like to see with these new BC Ferries. I would like to see a car capacity of 500 cars because in the future there will be even more people riding BC Ferries to get over to Vancouver Island and they are going to need to have the new vessels to have a bigger car capacity than 360 Cars. The new ferries should also have a bigger Passenger Capacity and I know this might sound crazy but I think the necessary Passenger Capacity would be 2500-3000. The reason for that is because I sometimes can't find any seats on a Coastal Class ferry and it is definitely not easy to find seats on one of the C-Class Ferries and if they have to close all vehicle decks during the Sailing then they will probably need to have a bigger Passenger Capacity than 2000. I think for the ferry it's self and what it will run on I think they should either make it so it would run on Natural Gas like the Spirit of BC and the Spirit of Vancouver Island or the other option is they could Diesel-Electric and maybe even make it fully electric in the future if that will even be possible in 30-35 years. I would also like them to instead try to make them actual new vessels instead of more up to date Coastal Class Ferries. For amenities I am expecting to see the usual Coastal Cafe, Coast Cafe Express Sitka Coffee Place or Arbutus Coffee Bar, Seawest Lounge, Passages Gift Shop, Kids Zone Washrooms and Elevators. Some other amenities that I would like to see is the Pacific Buffet on all 5 vessles because I do know that the Pacific Buffet is meant to only be available on Route 1 but Route 2 is also really popular and is almost as busy as Route 1 and at this point they might as well add it to Route 2 and for Route 30, I will get to that a bit later. I think for the Snack Bar seeing that if they were to put the Pacific Buffet on all 5 of them then they might as well put either the Coast Cafe Express or the Arbutus Coffee Bar but I think they are probably going to do Arbutus Coffee Bar because I don't really see the Coast Cafe Express on any of the newer ferries and they even removed from the Spirit Class Vessels with the Arbutus Coffee Bar. I also think they should bring back the Video Zone to these new vessels but instead of Arcade Machines they should put Game Consoles Like Nintendo Switch Xbox One and PS4 well probably by the mid 2020s it will be PS5 and Xbox Scarlett. For the Seating I would like to see TV's for all seating areas. One thing that I would like to see too is not every sailing is busy and maybe for non busy sailings they would be able to close certain areas on the vessel during the sailing. And finally I hope they are built here in BC. I don't really have a big interest in the smaller issues like what specific food and marketing options might be offered. What you need to keep in mind is if BC Ferries goes to the gigantic vessels you're suggesting, that means a considerable strain on terminal facilities, and also highway infrastructure. The plan they've articulated indicates vessels a bit bigger than what they currently have... and that makes sense. Frequency of service with manageable capacity is probably the way to go. Ditto, there's also the issue that a 500+ capacity ferry would ruin the hourly schedule of route 1. It's already a squeeze to get a full spirit turned around in 25 minutes. Maybe it's just my OCDness, but there's something hugely satisfying and simple about the ferry leaving every hour (or two) on the hour.
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Post by Charles on Jul 10, 2019 19:16:29 GMT -8
I have two things I would like design wise, covered outer decks at least for one deck or parts of one deck, something interesting and unique that would give the vessels something interesting about them, also a bow area like the C class vessels. Otherwise, the Coastal Vessels are quite nice to ride on and of course some nice three tone Airchime whistles sounding an E Major would be greatly appreciated. A nice new amenity would be usable wifi, they currently have wifi technically but if you try to connect, it will just tell you that the network has no internet connection. If those changes were made to the Coastal Class and also the changes for the amount of passengers and cars, I think they would be pretty solid ships!
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Post by Low Light Mike on Jul 10, 2019 19:45:05 GMT -8
I have two things I would like design wise, covered outer decks at least for one deck or parts of one deck. The thing that I really like about the Coastal Class ships is the covered outside deck, which is the promenade deck on each side of the lower Passenger Deck (Deck 5). I spend lots of time on that sheltered outside deck, when on a Coastal Class ship.
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Post by Blue Bus Fan on Jul 10, 2019 20:42:25 GMT -8
What I want on these vessels uniform seats, and doors on both side of vessel, less waste space, better use interior such Sitka Coffee Place instead of Arbutus Coffee Bar with better offering than Coastal Cafe Express. Amenities to get rid of Coastal Cafe Express, and Seawest lounge because I barely see people use it, for food service Coastal Cafe with seating from Seawest lounge, Pacific Buffet. I think new amenities that should be considered are showers, video gaming lounge and better pet area. If BC Ferries decides to modernize the Coastal Class vessel, get rid of useless pickle-fork with bridge move forward, move the rescue boats or allow passengers to use stair on exterior with covering the stairs on main passenger deck. Personally for fuel I would love to see LNG electric with easy conversion to electric which would eliminate the funnel for more outside.
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Post by dofd on Jul 12, 2019 3:58:12 GMT -8
I use the Seawest Lounge on most trips. Far from empty, I wish they had zero people. What times do you sail?
Anyway love the Seawest Lounge.
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grk
Chief Steward
Posts: 227
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Post by grk on Jul 12, 2019 11:12:46 GMT -8
I too use the Seawest Lounge on many trips, and it is usually busy; more so on days when the ferry is packed with school groups. I quiet haven away from the noise!
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Jess
Deckhand
Posts: 59
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Post by Jess on Jul 14, 2019 21:20:13 GMT -8
I don't really have a big interest in the smaller issues like what specific food and marketing options might be offered. What you need to keep in mind is if BC Ferries goes to the gigantic vessels you're suggesting, that means a considerable strain on terminal facilities, and also highway infrastructure. The plan they've articulated indicates vessels a bit bigger than what they currently have... and that makes sense. Frequency of service with manageable capacity is probably the way to go. Ditto, there's also the issue that a 500+ capacity ferry would ruin the hourly schedule of route 1. It's already a squeeze to get a full spirit turned around in 25 minutes. Maybe it's just my OCDness, but there's something hugely satisfying and simple about the ferry leaving every hour (or two) on the hour. Thank You for mentioning that. I didn't really think about how long it would take to unload and then load 500 cars again in less than 25 minutes because that would cause some ferry delays and even then, who knows how busy the run will be in 20 years, it may not be as busy and one way we could get a lot of these car passengers as walk on passengers is by increasing transit service at both Tsawwassen and Swartz Bay like a Canada Line Extention down to Tsawwassen and a few more bus routes to Tsawwassen and more bus service to Swartz Bay and I could see the problem with having a ferry for this big of a route having a sailing at a complete random time instead of on the exact hour.
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