It’s about time. The Swartz Bay ferry terminal is going to get a badly needed renovation. Passengers who have twiddled their thumbs for decades while waiting for ferries to the mainland and Gulf Islands can at last hope for some of the amenities that travellers in Tsawwassen enjoy.
B.C. Ferries is looking for public input to the plans, and hopes to begin building in the early 2020s. That means we still have a few years to wait, but we have the consolation of knowing that better days are ahead.
On those occasions when passengers have to wait for a ferry or two, or in the winter when ferries run only on the odd hours, those who are trapped in the massive parking lot will welcome some variety to while away the time.
At the moment, the Lands End Café building, which was built in 1959, offers a waiting room and an uninspiring café. A few vendors set up shop just outside. If you have a couple of hours to kill, it’s about as exciting as solitary confinement.
Islanders deserve better. Swartz Bay carries 35 per cent of the system’s passengers, second only to Tsawwassen, and brings in 40 per cent of its revenues.
B.C. Ferries says more people are using public transport, so they are walking on. That means the terminal needs bigger and better facilities for them and for the passengers who are going stir crazy sitting in their cars.
Those of us on the Island, 90 per cent of whom have used the ferries, are going to get the respect we are due.
Now if the government could just show the same respect to John Aaron Swart, and correct the name of his bay.
