B.C. Ferries, which had to cancel thousands of bookings this summer due to two coastal class vessels being out of service, must now notify customers that 800 more cancellations are coming up.
Affected sailings are between Horseshoe Bay and Departure Bay and between Horseshoe Bay and Langdale from Sept. 10 to Oct. 9.
Brian Anderson, vice-president of strategy and community engagement, said the 800 bookings represent 60 sailings on the two routes that were to provide additional capacity, but will not take place now that the Coastal Renaissance is out of service for engine repairs until at least mid-October.
Passengers with bookings will be contacted and have the option of rebooking or a refund, B.C. Ferries said.
Anderson said there is enough space to offer spots on other sailings, but there are no spare vessels to make up for the 60 sailings. “I recognize that this change is very frustrating for customers.”
B.C. Ferries is coming up to its fourth busiest long weekend of the year. Between Thursday and Tuesday, the company anticipates carrying 520,000 passengers and 200,000 vehicles, president Nicolas Jimenez said in a media briefing Thursday.
A total of 1,503 round trips are scheduled.
B.C. Ferries says relief crew will be on standby for critical positions, such as licensed officers, in case of crew shortages.
Traffic control programs are in place in bigger terminals, all ticket booths will be open at peak times, extra parking attendants will be on hand, and water will be available along with other activities at peak times at larger terminals, Jimenez said.
Data centres are prepared in case of a surge in demand on the website, and call centre teams will be standing by, the company said. In recent months, B.C. Ferries’ website has sometimes not worked during busy times.
B.C. Ferries repeated its recommendation that anyone who doesn’thave a reservation consider taking transit, carpooling or walking on.
“Essentially if you don’t have a reservation, you will find it a very challenging experience, but if you have a reservation you are going to get where you need to go,” Jimenez said.
All vessels are deployed prior to Labour Day, but during the following nine months, vessels will be taken out of service for safety inspections required by government regulations, B.C. Ferries said. Large ferries go to a shipyard for refits. Their off-duty time ranges from three weeks to eight weeks or more.
The Queen of Alberni will take on the Duke Point and Tsawwassen route, which the Coastal Renaissance had been serving. No change in service is expected, B.C. Ferries said.
While some critics have suggested the coastal-class vessels are more prone to breakdowns, the statistics “just don’t bear that out,” said Jimenez, noting that the Coastal Renaissance has a 99.4 per cent reliability record.
In the past five years, the vessel completed 13,000 sailings, with just 82 sailings cancelled for technical reasons, he said.
“The reality is, it’s a very reliable vessel and is in fact more reliable than the average of our large class vessels, which runs [at] a reliability of about 99.2 per cent.”
The Coastal Inspiration was temporarily out of service this summer to repair an oil leak.
Plans for the Coastal Renaissance, which is docked in Nanaimo, call for the engine to be lifted out in one piece, Jimenez said. “That’s going to buy us a little bit of time.
As well, B.C. Ferries is in the process of contracting with a yard to fix the vessel in North America, he said.
“We’ve got the right yard with the right technical expertise in place.
“So we’re excited that work is going to begin very shortly. Once the condition assessment is done we will have a better sense of the nature of the repair.”
