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Post by Blue Bus Fan on Aug 2, 2020 7:44:56 GMT -8
I think you mean that Queen of Cowichan, Queen of Coquitlam, Queen of Alberni and Queen of New Westminster will be in fleet probably seven years longer than expected. Considering the fact he doesn't mention any of the vessels you've listed, I don't think he means that. The two contract that we know have been reward are for one additional Salish Class and four additional Island Class which already have started construction. I doubt that major vessels are being prioritized over contract and construction on vessels that have begun.
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Post by princessofvanfan on Aug 2, 2020 9:32:51 GMT -8
I'm guessing the Surrey and Oak Bay will remain in service for about 5 years longer than planned. I think you mean that Queen of Cowichan, Queen of Coquitlam, Queen of Alberni and Queen of New Westminster will be in fleet probably seven years longer than expected. Sure, that would be even better - I never, ever want the New West to retire. Been trying to get another trip in on her, but they keep scheduling her sailings at times which don't work for us. We were booked on her for the 17th of this month at 2 P.M, but they went and moved her to a morning sailing . Anyway, we switched to a Spirit (3 P.M.) sailing, and I never get tired of cruising on one of those babies! Wish they would build more of those...such beautiful ships.
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Post by Blue Bus Fan on Oct 29, 2020 18:39:46 GMT -8
This quote is found here.
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Post by Dane on Oct 30, 2020 13:41:30 GMT -8
Hopefully I'm wrong, but, I really think this project in the form we had been following it is dead, which we've discussed a bit before.
I think we will see both a significant delay of this project due to financing constraints with the Province at the moment, and I also have a really strong suspicion that they'll award a contract locally if there's any way to do it.
Perhaps BCFS would be able to get into some of the infrastructure cash that seems inevitable from the Province and Federal Government as stimulus. Generally that requires a ready to go project, though. This doesn't seem anywhere near ready; maybe there's some detailed plans stored away on Yates St.
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Post by Blue Bus Fan on Oct 30, 2020 13:55:50 GMT -8
Hopefully I'm wrong, but, I really think this project in the form we had been following it is dead, which we've discussed a bit before. I think we will see both a significant delay of this project due to financing constraints with the Province at the moment, and I also have a really strong suspicion that they'll award a contract locally if there's any way to do it. Perhaps BCFS would be able to get into some of the infrastructure cash that seems inevitable from the Province and Federal Government as stimulus. Generally that requires a ready to go project, though. This doesn't seem anywhere near ready; maybe there's some detailed plans stored away on Yates St. I think BC Ferries is delaying until the right time because I haven’t heard anything about these vessels being canceled. I think BC Ferries will try to find best route to get these built in a timely matter.
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Post by Dane on Oct 30, 2020 14:25:56 GMT -8
I think BC Ferries is delaying until the right time because I haven’t heard anything about these vessels being canceled. I think BC Ferries will try to find best route to get these built in a timely matter. It seems, although I have no tangible information to support this, that BC Ferries really has almost no control over this process. If they did, we would probably be seeing construction right now as the Request for Proposals on this project were due well over a year ago now? And that vanished. The project page: www.bcferriesprojects.ca/nextgenRemoved is the RFP, which is a critical procurement step. And, the timelines even public facing there have essentially passed.
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Post by Blue Bus Fan on Oct 30, 2020 18:02:04 GMT -8
I think BC Ferries is delaying until the right time because I haven’t heard anything about these vessels being canceled. I think BC Ferries will try to find best route to get these built in a timely matter. It seems, although I have no tangible information to support this, that BC Ferries really has almost no control over this process. If they did, we would probably be seeing construction right now as the Request for Proposals on this project were due well over a year ago now? And that vanished. The project page: www.bcferriesprojects.ca/nextgenRemoved is the RFP, which is a critical procurement step. And, the timelines even public facing there have essentially passed. Maybe there keeping everything open for quick and easy RFP issue for construction for these waiting. I think BC Ferries is playing smart by not saying they are delayed because they don’t know government are willing to help out with. Found here.
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Post by Mike on Oct 30, 2020 18:54:47 GMT -8
I think BC Ferries is playing smart by not saying they are delayed because they don’t know government are willing to help out with. They are saying the ships are delayed, indefinitely.
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Post by Charles on Jan 31, 2021 15:58:23 GMT -8
BCFerries updated their website and said that the vessel replacement program is pushed back at least 5 years, and also that they don’t have designs for the new vessels yet.
This program was barely into its infancy before COVID hit, I think with how hard BCFerries got hit it will likely be longer. These up coming summers will definitely play a major factor into how long it will take until a contract is signed for these vessels.
In the mean time I think the New West, Cowichan and Coquitlam are in good enough shape so that we don’t run into any major issues like what the Queen of Nanaimo ran into with her retirement!
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Post by Blue Bus Fan on Jan 31, 2021 18:03:26 GMT -8
BCFerries updated their website and said that the vessel replacement program is pushed back at least 5 years, and also that they don’t have designs for the new vessels yet. This program was barely into its infancy before COVID hit, I think with how hard BCFerries got hit it will likely be longer. These up coming summers will definitely play a major factor into how long it will take until a contract is signed for these vessels. In the mean time I think the New West, Cowichan and Coquitlam are in good enough shape so that we don’t run into any major issues like what the Queen of Nanaimo ran into with her retirement! Wow, I am kinda shocked on that short of timeline for these. I was expecting these vessels to pushed back until 2030 because of how much money has been lost. I personally think that we could see eight being built, which I doubt we see, because Queen of Surrey and Queen of Oak Bay are five years younger.
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Neil
Voyager
Posts: 7,175
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Post by Neil on Jan 31, 2021 21:01:05 GMT -8
BCFerries updated their website and said that the vessel replacement program is pushed back at least 5 years, and also that they don’t have designs for the new vessels yet. This program was barely into its infancy before COVID hit, I think with how hard BC Ferries got hit it will likely be longer. These up coming summers will definitely play a major factor into how long it will take until a contract is signed for these vessels. In the mean time I think the New West, Cowichan and Coquitlam are in good enough shape so that we don’t run into any major issues like what the Queen of Nanaimo ran into with her retirement! No surprise that Covid has delayed renewing the fleet, although I thought I had read that an injection of federal money was meant to keep things somewhat on track. Maybe I got that wrong. In any event, it's a good thing that BC Ferries has a decent reputation for maintaining the essential functioning of their vessels, even if the aesthetics sometimes seem a bit neglected. Still... it's hard to overcome the basic conflict between salt water and steel, and a 45 or 50 year old coastal ferry is at the margins of its useful life in other ways as well. In terms of increasing capacity in the form of new major vessels, we don't know how things will play out in what will hopefully be a post-Covid travel environment not too far from now. Will there be an explosion of traffic, or will people have permanently altered their travel habits? Maybe the existing ferries will be sufficient for several years. Time will tell.
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Post by Mike C on Feb 1, 2021 8:58:17 GMT -8
BCFerries updated their website and said that the vessel replacement program is pushed back at least 5 years, and also that they don’t have designs for the new vessels yet. This program was barely into its infancy before COVID hit, I think with how hard BC Ferries got hit it will likely be longer. These up coming summers will definitely play a major factor into how long it will take until a contract is signed for these vessels. In the mean time I think the New West, Cowichan and Coquitlam are in good enough shape so that we don’t run into any major issues like what the Queen of Nanaimo ran into with her retirement! No surprise that Covid has delayed renewing the fleet, although I thought I had read that an injection of federal money was meant to keep things somewhat on track. Maybe I got that wrong. In any event, it's a good thing that BC Ferries has a decent reputation for maintaining the essential functioning of their vessels, even if the aesthetics sometimes seem a bit neglected. Still... it's hard to overcome the basic conflict between salt water and steel, and a 45 or 50 year old coastal ferry is at the margins of its useful life in other ways as well. In terms of increasing capacity in the form of new major vessels, we don't know how things will play out in what will hopefully be a post-Covid travel environment not too far from now. Will there be an explosion of traffic, or will people have permanently altered their travel habits? Maybe the existing ferries will be sufficient for several years. Time will tell. I’m not the least bit surprised either. But - what is the record for longest serving / oldest ship in BCF’s fleet? I’d imagine the New West will be pushing that, given this revised timeline pushes her service life to about 65 years old. Also interesting that if BCF decides to go with the Coastal-class design, they will be building new ships based on a 20 year old blueprint.
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Neil
Voyager
Posts: 7,175
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Post by Neil on Feb 1, 2021 10:07:55 GMT -8
No surprise that Covid has delayed renewing the fleet, although I thought I had read that an injection of federal money was meant to keep things somewhat on track. Maybe I got that wrong. In any event, it's a good thing that BC Ferries has a decent reputation for maintaining the essential functioning of their vessels, even if the aesthetics sometimes seem a bit neglected. Still... it's hard to overcome the basic conflict between salt water and steel, and a 45 or 50 year old coastal ferry is at the margins of its useful life in other ways as well. In terms of increasing capacity in the form of new major vessels, we don't know how things will play out in what will hopefully be a post-Covid travel environment not too far from now. Will there be an explosion of traffic, or will people have permanently altered their travel habits? Maybe the existing ferries will be sufficient for several years. Time will tell. I’m not the least bit surprised either. But - what is the record for longest serving / oldest ship in BCF’s fleet? I’d imagine the New West will be pushing that, given this revised timeline pushes her service life to about 65 years old. Also interesting that if BCF decides to go with the Coastal-class design, they will be building new ships based on a 20 year old blueprint. Longest fleet service... you're probably right about the ' New Westminster. In terms of oldest, I doubt the Langdale Queen retiring at 74 will ever be topped.
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Post by WettCoast on Feb 1, 2021 12:08:03 GMT -8
Also interesting that if BCF decides to go with the Coastal-class design, they will be building new ships based on a 20 year old blueprint. I would be surprised if BC Ferries chose to build more Coastal class vessels, though greatly modified & updated, maybe. I am thinking new builds something more like 21st century C-Class. I also foresee a time when we won't need to move so many cars, as we transition more to mass transit. So ferries that are designed to move 400 cars might not be what we need thirty years from now. But my record as a futurologist is spotty, so who knows?
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Post by randomferryguy on Feb 23, 2021 12:41:21 GMT -8
Also interesting that if BCF decides to go with the Coastal-class design, they will be building new ships based on a 20 year old blueprint. I would be surprised if BC Ferries chose to build more Coastal class vessels, though greatly modified & updated, maybe. I am thinking new builds something more like 21st century C-Class. I also foresee a time when we won't need to move so many cars, as we transition more to mass transit. So ferries that are designed to move 400 cars might not be what we need thirty years from now. But my record as a futurologist is spotty, so who knows? The upper car decks were being designed to enable them to be reconfigured to passenger space for just that reason.
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Post by cbachmeier on May 5, 2021 10:58:16 GMT -8
BCFerries updated their website and said that the vessel replacement program is pushed back at least 5 years, and also that they don’t have designs for the new vessels yet. This program was barely into its infancy before COVID hit, I think with how hard BCFerries got hit it will likely be longer. These up coming summers will definitely play a major factor into how long it will take until a contract is signed for these vessels. In the mean time I think the New West, Cowichan and Coquitlam are in good enough shape so that we don’t run into any major issues like what the Queen of Nanaimo ran into with her retirement! I am curious to see what will happen to the MV Queen of New Westminster, from what I see the MV Queen of New Westminster appears to be in somewhat good shape, compared to the former MV Queen of Nanaimo and MV Queen of Burnaby. The 2009 refit was done to extend the vessels lifetime until about 2020-2025, my guess is that due to Transport Canada regulations the vessel may have to undergo another refit sometime in the next 5 years, which would help, because the vessel is likely to not be replaced by a newbuild Major Class vessel until at least 2029 or later.
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Post by Curtis on Oct 4, 2021 20:22:12 GMT -8
Posting to acknowledge that I've changed the name of this thread to better reflect the current status of this project. We'll rename the thread when BC Ferries resumes the project and we get more details.
Also, just some general housekeeping: I've merged posts from an older inactive thread here as discussion of this project moved from that thread to this one and it would be redundant to keep both.
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Post by randomferryguy on Oct 4, 2021 22:47:08 GMT -8
Posting to acknowledge that I've changed the name of this thread to better reflect the current status of this project. We'll rename the thread when BC Ferries resumes the project and we get more details. Also, just some general housekeeping: I've merged posts from an older inactive thread here as discussion of this project moved from that thread to this one and it would be redundant to keep both. From what I hear it's actually getting ready to start up again.
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Post by markkarj on Oct 30, 2021 16:01:04 GMT -8
Given that BC Ferries will likely have to borrow a boatload (pardon the pun) of money to pay for the C-class replacements, would it make more sense to build now and enjoy lower interest rates? It seems with inflation climbing, this might be a consideration even if operating revenue is looking soft for now.
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Post by markkarj on Dec 24, 2021 8:54:00 GMT -8
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Post by WettCoast on Dec 24, 2021 20:57:31 GMT -8
Saying six or seven ships. I thought that was seven prior to the pandemic. They are planning to replace all five of the C-class plus the last remaining of the Seven Sisters (the New Westminster). That is six ships. But you are right, they did intend on a seventh ship. perhaps to add a fifth vessel on route 1, or maybe a third on route 30.
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Post by Dane on Dec 24, 2021 21:39:07 GMT -8
I haven't been keeping up on this much, really. But wasn't one of the plans to have two mid size ships for Route 3 to keep two boat service all year, supported by one major vessel in peak times? That would support the six number and still allow for increased service / capacity / flexibility.
Seems rather a bad idea to leave the fleet without an additional major vessel. The past well demonstrates the fragility of service to losing major vessels with no backfill available.
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Post by Curtis on Jun 10, 2022 13:26:36 GMT -8
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Post by Kahloke on Jun 10, 2022 14:17:26 GMT -8
Initial rendering looks like a Super-C car deck arrangement with a heavily updated/modified passenger superstructure above. The rendering makes it look like the bridges will be moved up one floor to Deck 6. Of course, this is a very early initial concept, and I fully realize the final product will change considerably from what we are seeing here. Still, this looks pretty good. I hope they add portal openings on the upper car deck like what we see on the Super-C's. Article says the new ships will have 2200 lane metres, and accommodate 2100 passengers. That's roughly 366 cars, assuming a 6 metre vehicle length, which means these new ships will be about the same size as the Spirits. Again, I'm not taking too much stock in this until a design actually gets finalized.
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Post by pacificcat99 on Jun 10, 2022 15:48:42 GMT -8
It is one thing to have a design but another to determine who is actually going to build them.
Unfortunately it looks like they will be built in either Poland, Romania, or somewhere else outside of Canada because of the lack of shipbuilding capacity here.
It is unfortunate that the shipbuilding industry in BC in in the condition that it is but I guess we can always hope for these new builds to be built here at home.
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