[Procrastinational]

Well I take the ferries A LOT. And I'm not exaggerating. There were a number of years in school where I'd make a round trip on the ferries every weekend.
The last time I payed attention, the reservation number my family uses had over 500 reservations made.

Since the Coastal Ferry Act back in 2003, there have been some pretty notable changes. I'd say the service as a whole has improved. The ferries are more likely to be on time, and the staff seem to be more friendly and helpful nowadays. They must have gone through some sensitivity training or had some scolding, because there were times back in the 90's where certain employees came across as really not caring about your satisfaction.

The ferries and terminals are absolutely much nicer, having all been updated inside. Sometimes I wonder if they've gone a little too far in the direction of catering to tourists however. It's a ferry, not a cruise ship.


That being said, there are a number of changes I'd like to see, some of which have been mentioned.

Before making major service cuts, I think it is important to consider the effect fares have had on ridership. The major routes haven't seen major drops, whereas the small routes have. The conclusion I take from this is that the demand is much more elastic for the locals on some of the smaller islands that tend to have lower incomes than the tourists that make up a large chunk of the passengers on the main routes. Perhaps looking back to ridership data from a decade or so ago gives a better idea of the ridership those small routes would have, given reasonable fares. Rather than getting into a cycle of cutting routes and raising fares, I'd like to see fares relaxed a bit, and allowing time to see how ridership responds. The route cancellations may not be necessary in the first place.


In the long term, I think it only makes sense to keep one terminal in Nanaimo. Obviously Duke Point is newer and more future-proof, so that should be the one they use. I would like to see a Horseshoe Bay to Nanaimo run continue, just going through Duke Point instead of Departure Bay. I don't see this happening over the next 10 years though. They need to at least recoup the investment they've made into the terminal upgrades.
Selling the land could probably provide much of the money needed to expand Duke Point.


I'd also like to see flexible fares. In the winter, on the minor routes, it's not uncommon to be on a ferry that has fewer than 10 cars on it. Reduced fares for these quiet sailings could maybe take some demand from the sailings a peak times that tend to fill up. This would increase the capacity utilization of the network without actually expanding anything. As well, I think it makes sense to have cheaper fares if they are booked far in advance. Perhaps even frequent traveller points or something of the like.
This would hopefully make the ferries more affordable for locals who are able to take advantages of these offers, while having tourists who are potentially more willing and able continue to pay full prices.


This may be a bit of a contentious topic, but I'd like to see a reasonable level of funding for ferries (in any region) from at least the provincial and ideally, federal government. The cost increases have really been crippling to the people living on some of the smaller islands, and to a lesser extent, to Vancouver Island.
Now, I think it would be too much of a challenge to go back to the old model, so I'm not advocating a return to that. But I do think that ferries should absolutely be considered part of the highway network and receive appropriate levels of funding as a result. Most of us will probably never use the roads up north or interior ferries that our tax dollars help fund, but they are still essential components of infrastructure, and it seems that the coastal ferries have been unfairly singled out to have to mostly fund themselves.

Vancouver Island has a more significant population than either of those regions, and the coastal ferries see much more use. If we aren't willing to moderately subsidize coastal ferries, I think it's rather hypocritical to continue full funding for interior ferries or roads in remote regions with small populations.