grk2
Deckhand
Posts: 91
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Post by grk2 on Aug 31, 2023 16:26:19 GMT -8
Does anyone remember and have details of this service. It ran at least one winter and I used it twice for work assignments in Rupert. If I recall once a week there was a late evening departure, the other a morning departure after the 07:00 ex Swartz had unloaded. 3 of the one one way trips saw my cabin down on Tween deck, only once on an upper deck, but then my employer, Gov of Can, was frugal!
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Neil
Voyager 
Posts: 7,185
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Post by Neil on Aug 31, 2023 18:10:15 GMT -8
Does anyone remember and have details of this service. It ran at least one winter and I used it twice for work assignments in Rupert. If I recall once a week there was a late evening departure, the other a morning departure after the 07:00 ex Swartz had unloaded. 3 of the one one way trips saw my cabin down on Tween deck, only once on an upper deck, but then my employer, Gov of Can, was frugal! I certainly remember it... don't think it lasted long. I think WettCoast (Jim) probably has more precise recall. If you have an approximate year, I could look in my schedules stash for particulars, but I doubt I have anything. When I look at ferry operations in Japan and some in Europe, it's always interested me that there are routes that are absolutely not connecting the closest points on two coasts. Here, for the most part, we do. So the brief experiment in connecting Tsawwassen to Prince Rupert was definitely an outlier. In 1965, it was Kelsey Bay to Rupert, then after the highway went through, it switched to Port Hardy. I'd be interested in the thinking that led to things starting at Tsawwassen, albeit for a very short while. |
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Post by WettCoast on Aug 31, 2023 20:07:27 GMT -8
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Post by WettCoast on Aug 31, 2023 20:27:47 GMT -8
Queen of the North @ Tsawwassen Terminal, berth 5, long before that berth was rebuilt for use by the Spirits ...
11 December 1980
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Post by WettCoast on Aug 31, 2023 20:37:11 GMT -8
BC Ferry 1980 promotional advertisement for the newly minted Queen of the North. Note the off season routing says two round trips weekly. I believe the extended run to Tsawwassen ended when Bill Bennett's government initiated a major cost controlling exercise in 1981 (IIRC) that led to significant cuts at BC Ferries, and in other areas of BC Govt operations.
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Post by WettCoast on Aug 31, 2023 20:51:17 GMT -8
So the big cuts came early in 1982 as per this Province newspaper clipping ... Note that there is some other fairly interesting stuff in this clipping including info re the lifting of the V-class on Route 1. Attachments:
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Post by northwesterner on Sept 1, 2023 10:08:32 GMT -8
So the big cuts came early in 1982 as per this Province newspaper clipping ... Note that there is some other fairly interesting stuff in this clipping including info re the lifting of the V-class on Route 1. Interesting to note as per our recent discussion elsewhere in this forum that the 4 lifted Vs were meant to have the same final configuration and auto capacity, but Victoria and Vancouver never had the hoistable decks installed due to this budget crisis. |
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Post by Blue Bus Fan on Sept 1, 2023 10:36:45 GMT -8
So the big cuts came early in 1982 as per this Province newspaper clipping ... Note that there is some other fairly interesting stuff in this clipping including info re the lifting of the V-class on Route 1. Interesting to note as per our recent discussion elsewhere in this forum that the 4 lifted Vs were meant to have the same final configuration and auto capacity, but Victoria and Vancouver never had the hoistable decks installed due to this budget crisis. I thought it would have cheaper to leave them in when lifting due them already have them before lifting. |
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Post by WettCoast on Sept 1, 2023 19:48:56 GMT -8
So the big cuts came early in 1982 as per this Province newspaper clipping ... Note that there is some other fairly interesting stuff in this clipping including info re the lifting of the V-class on Route 1. Interesting to note as per our recent discussion elsewhere in this forum that the 4 lifted Vs were meant to have the same final configuration and auto capacity, but Victoria and Vancouver never had the hoistable decks installed due to this budget crisis. The Vancouver did have hoistable ramps added, but not covering virtually all of the main car deck as was done on the Esquimalt & Saanich. The Victoria got no ramps.
I am fairly sure that these ramps saw not a whole lot of use. Deploying them must have caused considerable delays. Blue Bus Fan , the ramps on all the V-class ferries prior to lifting were identical to those that were still on the Nanaimo & Burnaby when they were retired. They were fixed 'mezzanine' decks reached by hoistable ramps at each end. Following lifting the V-class vessels (except Victoria & New West) were fitted with complete hoistable decks that could be raised right up to the ceiling (deck head) to allow all over height space, or lowered to permit maximizing the number of under height vehicles that could be loaded. The Spirits, when new, also received the same hoistable type decks, capable of carrying 60 AEQ's. |
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