People heading to and from the Sunshine Coast on Monday could experience delays or cancellations after a known problem resurfaced this weekend at BC Ferries’ Langdale Terminal.
Pier 1 experienced mechanical problems Sunday afternoon, limiting vehicle traffic to the ship’s main car deck.
The same problem occurred on May 16, causing major traffic jams on routes to and from Horseshoe Bay and leaving many people behind.
It also forced drivers already on board the Queen of Surrey to back out on the Vancouver side on Sunday evening.
In a statement Monday, BC Ferries said staff are currently loading vehicles using the main deck only.
“While this reduced vehicle capacity on each sailing, service continued to operate and we were able to accommodate all customers with reservations by moving some bookings to the next available sailing,” a spokesperson said.
“We have not canceled any reservations to date.”
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BC Ferries also advises customers to check sailings in the afternoon as there may be space available.
Eric McNeely, provincial president of the BC Ferry & Marine Workers Union, said these infrastructure failures reinforce the challenge BC Ferries is facing, namely delaying investment.
“So if we look back a few years ago, BC Ferries did an assessment of its terminals and there were 30 to 50 percent of its terminals in need of significant repair, so they were in poor condition or needed significant repair,” he said.
“Langdale, particularly the upper line at Langdale … has had challenges essentially throughout its duration and what we saw throughout Sunday and into this week seems to be even more so, where communities on the Sunshine Coast that already have one of the busiest routes in the summer now have less capacity because of reduced access to the upper car deck, and I think that’s going to present some real challenges.”
McNeely said the dissolution of the ferry advisory committee means the people who live there have had fewer opportunities to raise their concerns, be it infrastructure, sailing frequency or ship delays.
He added that the problems at Langdale are causing frustration in Powell River as people try to travel from that terminal, leading to passenger backlogs and delays.
McNeely said crews were trying to do what they could to get as many people across as possible.
“But even as of last night, there were crew members whose boats had to stay in Horseshoe Bay, and that means crew members had to go back and forth on water taxis, and this is not a normal process and when you consider there are people traveling from all over the province to support that second boat, I don’t think the system is running at full capacity because of the pending investment,” he said.
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