Metro Vancouver & Interregional Passenger Ferry Service Discussion

[jollyburger]

So the marketing guy is promising some mythical marine terminal in Vancouver. And the CEO says they have a 35 year lease on their ghetto dock.

Director of marketing and sales Xander France says plans for expansion in terminals and providing better customer experience are in the works; it just takes time.

“As this is a brand-new service it will take a period for people to get adjusted to terminal locations and where to go,” he says. “We are confident with the number of amenities the location is convenient for travelers.

“There are plans for a marine terminal in the future, on the Vancouver side.”

https://www.mycomoxvalleynow.com/92542/f...nd-vancouver-say-hullo-is-the-way-to-go/

And the CEO

Hullo has a 400-stall parking lot on Nanaimo Port Authority land for which it has a 35-year lease. Hullo also has a 35-year lease for a docking spot at the Vancouver Harbour Flight Centre, Caddick said.

https://biv.com/article/2023/08/hullo-aims-succeed-where-other-ferry-operators-have-failed

[logan5]

Could you explain why this means improvements cannot be made inside the lease term?

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by logan5

Could you explain why this means improvements cannot be made inside the lease term?

Why would they invest in a suboptimal dock setup when they could have gone into the SeaBus terminal? Let alone getting permission from Burrard Landing to do some kind of temporary or permanent weather protection on that bottom section beside the dock.

There's one set of stairs and one elevator next to that gate. Or else you do the long walk around past Harbour Air all the way back to the stairs up to the Olympic flame.



https://twitter.com/iamkennethchan/status/1693442900712202353/photo/1

Again no problem when you have handful of people getting on float planes but if you actually plan on filling the ferries it seems to be unsuited for 250-354 people.

[aberdeen5698]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

There's one set of stairs and one elevator next to that gate.

Sounds like almost all of our Skytrain stations...

[logan5]

Looks like a pretty good opportunity for Hullo to succeed.

BC Ferries demand reached new heights earlier this year to the extent that it saw a new all-time record for a quarter — and this was all before the peak period of the summer.

In its newly released quarterly report today, the ferry corporation announced it saw 5.8 million passengers and 2.5 million vehicles over the first quarter of its current fiscal year between April 1 and June 30, 2023. That represents an increase of 7% and 3%, respectively, compared to the same quarter in 2022.

The ferry corporation has been reporting consecutive records in recent years since the pandemic rebound.

“This quarter we sailed a record number of round trips and moved more people and vehicles than ever before in our history,” said Nicolas Jimenez, the president and CEO of BC Ferries, in a statement.

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/bc-ferries-record-passengers-volumes-q1-2023

[jollyburger]

Hullo is using Viasat for their wifi.

https://www.broadcastprome.com/news/sate...de-wi-fi-for-new-ferry-service-on-hullo/

Seems like each ship has a pair of antennas. Ballpark estimate after looking at a Viasat marine pricelist maybe 60-100K USD for a pair of receivers for each ship and then monthly fees around 15K USD for each vessel

[jollyburger]

Looks like the second ferry got fixed and it's taken over the route last night and today.

[djmk]

The daily hive is reporting more trips and more benefits for it's riders.

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/hullo-ferries-vancouver-nanimo-increased-sailings-ridership

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by djmk

The daily hive is reporting more trips and more benefits for it's riders.

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/hullo-ferries-vancouver-nanimo-increased-sailings-ridership

But you really wonder if they are going to do the full schedule during the winter. Seems like they'll just hold off with the current sailings until Spring. It'll be interesting to see how fast they can go at night.

Some reporter said it's about a 20 minute disembark time for the ferry.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Yeah, the summer season’s over, and that’s the best season to grab foot traffic. Should’ve run all this stuff (and the paid articles) out two months ago… or waited until May.

[djmk]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

Yeah, the summer season’s over, and that’s the best season to grab foot traffic. Should’ve run all this stuff (and the paid articles) out two months ago… or waited until May.

it's always important to read the article before posting about it

Or just remain negative about everything. Your choice.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Originally Posted by djmk

it's always important to read the article before posting about it

Or just remain negative about everything. Your choice.

It's important to remember that a lot of DailyHive is paid advertising disguised as journalism.

I'm saying it because I read the article, my dude: all this is too little, too late. Labour Day gets them 290 seats, sure, but how many during Thanksgiving? Ferry ridership dips considerably between October and April.

[djmk]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

It's important to remember that a lot of DailyHive is paid advertising disguised as journalism.

I'm saying it because I read the article, my dude: all this is too little, too late. Labour Day gets them 290 seats, sure, but how many during Thanksgiving? Ferry ridership dips considerably between October and April.

I wonder why they are adding earlier ferries for commuters. Bizarre. It's almost as if they found some demand somewhere.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Or they're trying to stimulate future demand... or they assume the current demand will last for the next eight months when it really won't. Much too early to predict success - especially when they fumbled a boat service's most profitable time of the year.

[djmk]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

Or they're trying to stimulate future demand... or they assume the current demand will last for the next eight months when it really won't. Much too early to predict success - especially when they fumbled a boat service's most profitable time of the year.

Too early to to predict success but definitely not too early for you to predict failure.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Originally Posted by djmk

Too early to to predict success but definitely not too early for you to predict failure.

This but unironically. One's an anomaly, two's coincidence... four private sector Nanaimo ferries going bankrupt in less than twelve months (not counting the Victoria one) is a solid losing streak.

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by djmk

I wonder why they are adding earlier ferries for commuters. Bizarre. It's almost as if they found some demand somewhere.

So they magically on launch went from a four round trip ferry service to two and then three only for Labour Day weekend. Bizarre indeed.

• Video Link

[martinishaker]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

This but unironically. One's an anomaly, two's coincidence... four private sector Nanaimo ferries going bankrupt in less than twelve months (not counting the Victoria one) is a solid losing streak.

I sense deep misery in you life. Maybe you should see a shrink. Past ferry routes failed for specific boat reasons and in much different times. Covid helped people work remotely and move out of Vancouver. In addition to the Departure Bay, Duke Point, and seaplanes, new trips will be made just to get to the office a couple times a month.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Originally Posted by martinishaker

I sense deep misery in you life. Maybe you should see a shrink. Past ferry routes failed for specific boat reasons and in much different times. Covid helped people work remotely and move out of Vancouver. In addition to the Departure Bay, Duke Point, and seaplanes, new trips will be made just to get to the office a couple times a month.

Fifth Sixth Lucky number seventh time's the charm? I appreciate your naivete. Metro Victoria is four times as populous as Nanaimo and has significantly more demand, and even that one didn't work out.

[ilikeredheads]

Main reason for the demand is BC Ferries' broken down vessel. The 4 round trips is only for the long weekend. It goes back down to 3 round trips for the rest of the month, still a lot less than what they had initially advertised.

They are still in the honeymoon phase. We'll get a better picture in a couple of months.