The new passenger ferry that will provide service between downtown Victoria and Vancouver will literally be testing the waters starting Thursday in Victoria’s Inner Harbour.
V2V Vacations’ Empress will start three days of sea trials and testing by undergoing maneouvres in the Inner Harbour and along the coastline off Dallas Road. After two days of working out the kinks in those areas, the 254-passenger vessel takes the weekend off and, on Monday, the vessel will run a trial along its route between Victoria and Vancouver.
V2V Vacations intends to start scheduled service May 1, with Victoria departures from beside the Steamship Terminal Building at 2 p.m. and Vancouver departures from the Vancouver Convention Centre docks leaving at 8 a.m. The trip is estimated to take 3.5 hours.
The V2V might be the first but it won’t be the only passenger ferry service on offer as of next spring. Clipper Navigation intends to launch its own service on that route in 2018.
Passenger service between the two harbours hasn’t been tried since the Royal Sealink Express shut down in 1993 after losing millions of dollars due to low ridership after just 19 months.
