BC Ferries

so how far would one have to drive to go from Vancouver to Nanaimo using your options? It's not like the route(s) that you offered wouldn't have their own cons and yet would still cost plenty…

Having said that, I have no idea how much a highway(s)or bridge(s) costs but maybe you do? Down in Washington state they still run ferries on routes that you can actually drive around in a hour or 2….having said that, their ferry service is a ton cheaper to use then ours.

Your northern route would service a part of the island with the least amount of population and would be one heck of a ton of driving to go from Vancouver to Victoria.

The northern route could be a major boon to the economy of both the sunshine coast and the north island.

The southern route I proposed would have to cross into the US via Bellingham - if you factor in not having to wait plus the ferry sailing time, the trip to Victoria would be shorter.

Rewoga…just wondering..how long have you been an islander?

4-5 years?? I won't be writing anyone "official" with these ideas…just exploring them here on NBR.

another good thing about the bc ferries is how they bring in lots of ship building contracts to the local shipyards .

LOL

The northern route could be a major boon to the economy of both the sunshine coast and the north island.

The southern route I proposed would have to cross into the US via Bellingham - if you factor in not having to wait plus the ferry sailing time, the trip to Victoria would be shorter.

so build a series of bridges and highways that would cost billions of dollars for a few cities with populations ranging from less then 10,000 to 30,000 tops and you still end up in mid-island?

or are you suggestion that the Americians build highways and bridges for billions of dollars that would mostly supports us?

Although both your routes do make it possible, do they really make sense from a financial or practicial point of view?

I only go to the island a few times a year and although I hate the ferries system, its really not that big of a deal. You live on the island and have obviously given it more thought then I have, so maybe it would make sense, but wow would a ton of mainlanders be pissed(if someone from PG was pissed about the S2S hwy improvements,this would kill them). I wonder what the goverment would charge for tolls to help pay for these routes?

so build a series of bridges and highways that would cost billions of dollars for a few cities with populations ranging from less then 10,000 to 30,000 tops and you still end up in mid-island?

or are you suggestion that the Americians build highways and bridges for billions of dollars that would mostly supports us?

Although both your routes do make it possible, do they really make sense from a financial or practicial point of view?

I only go to the island a few times a year and although I hate the ferries system, its really not that big of a deal. You live on the island and have obviously given it more thought then I have, so maybe it would make sense, but wow would a ton of mainlanders be pissed(if someone from PG was pissed about the S2S hwy improvements,this would kill them). I wonder what the goverment would charge for tolls to help pay for these routes?

I bet if they build a bridge it would have such a ridiculously low speedlimit that it would be faster by ferry anyway.

Bridge - never gonna happen…

QFT

so build a series of bridges and highways that would cost billions of dollars for a few cities with populations ranging from less then 10,000 to 30,000 tops and you still end up in mid-island?

or are you suggestion that the Americians build highways and bridges for billions of dollars that would mostly supports us?

Although both your routes do make it possible, do they really make sense from a financial or practicial point of view?

I only go to the island a few times a year and although I hate the ferries system, its really not that big of a deal. You live on the island and have obviously given it more thought then I have, so maybe it would make sense, but wow would a ton of mainlanders be pissed(if someone from PG was pissed about the S2S hwy improvements,this would kill them). I wonder what the goverment would charge for tolls to help pay for these routes?

People sure seem to like the Coquihala…and at the time the interior was just getting going economically…

I only go to the island a few times a year and although I hate the ferries system, its really not that big of a deal. You live on the island and have obviously given it more thought then I have, so maybe it would make sense, but wow would a ton of mainlanders be pissed(if someone from PG was pissed about the S2S hwy improvements,this would kill them). I wonder what the goverment would charge for tolls to help pay for these routes?

The complaint of Islanders is while we may have chosen to live on the island, the ferry fares have doubled. We made decisions when it was a reasonable fee for travel. Honestly, I don't think we need the fancy terminals. The ones we had were just fine. Is the sea bus terminal any different than it was 30 years go?

I used to live on Saltspring Island when it was easy and cheap to hop on and off island. My family lived there for over 40 years, and decided to move when the fares were too high. The expensive fares are also affecting the interest in tourists coming to the smaller islands who are now seeing reduced tourism but massively increased property taxes!

I found a receipt a month ago where it was under $40 for car and driver each way to Victoria. This was 1999. We now pay almost double that.

If I need to get to Vancouver for a meeting - it's cheaper now to fly on the seaplane from Nanaimo or sometimes even from Comox.

I still believe - our government needs to stand up and say - no more free sailings for the interior ferries. Seriously - we can't afford to offer that for free any more. Too bad so sad.

I wonder what the goverment would charge for tolls to help pay for these routes?

Confederation bridge to PEI costs 43.25$ per vehicle up to 2 axles for a return trip.

People sure seem to like the Coquihala…and at the time the interior was just getting going economically…

When was the last time you drove the sunshine coast. Where might this coquihalla style road go?

There is no need for a bridge if the ferries were to think like transportation service and not a cruise ship company.

When was the last time you drove the sunshine coast. Where might this coquihalla style road go?

I go to Powell River for work all the time - the ferry schedule really eff's with your day. I'd take a 2 hour drive with no ferry waits any day over the current ferry schedule. The road would go past Powell River, bridge across the islands and then into Campbell River and then be 45 minutes to the CV - would improve transportation options for the whole north Island which is the only place that affordable growth can happen on Van Isle.

There is no need for a bridge if the ferries were to think like transportation service and not a cruise ship company.

LOL

I know a guy who was involved in the Harbor link ferry. downtown Nanimo to downtown Vancouver. they were just getting to be profitable when they blew up thier motor and couldnt finance the new one.

He told me that the BCferries did everything they could to stop them. everything from trying to get thier access to the seabus terminal denied to having hotels pull thier pamphlets.

with such a huge fixed asset cost the only way for them to make enough money to pay the bills is more volume. except volume is dropping, both commercially and from passengers.

Ah the old "pay the workers less" argument surfaces again. Won't even get into the philosophical issues around people demanding people get paid less well for their work, but instead propose a look into the math of a major vessel.

So lets take a look at a Spirit vessel (I worked on one for a couple of summers):

I assume by base staff you mean catering and such. As a side note: More people travelling = more crew required by Transport Canada. There are difference liscenses worked out dependong on how many passengers the ship wants to carry. Instead of crew sitting idle or polishing knobs, they created a food place which makes money and subsidizes the cost of the ferry. Yes the overpriced grilled salmon makes the ferry fare cheaper.

So lets say its a fairly busy day, but not full, and you have 1500 passengers. Maybe 350 cars?

So about $14000 for the passengers only and another $18000 for cars/1 driver. I am rounding a ton here to make things easy for me.

So $32000 for passenger fees.

The cafeterias and such on a busy day? Lets say it's a funny time of day and only 300 people buy items at $10 each. Profit margin, 40%? so income of $1200? (I know this is too low, but no worries)

We are going to remove the cafeteria now, and just hire some drones with their MED training and chute training and all that to sit around for minimum wage instead of getting $25-30 an hour. They also will not be full time employees and will not have benefits/medical/etc.

So 25 staff, including the cooks, which usually have higher training and first aid tickets and all that business are now cut down to minimum ($10 soon?)
Lets call the workers $40/hour to make up for all the benefits and all that. So they make in those 2 hours, $2000.
At minumum wage - 2 hours is $500. But we have closed the overpriced cafeterias down now, so the difference is
really $800 vs $500.

Sweet, closing the cafeteria and hiring trained people to sit around for Transport Canada purposes at minimum wage would save $300 per sailing on my imaginary summer ferry run. $300 per run on $32000. Think there are better places to look at money saving. Let some people have some decent paying jobs. They are hard enough to find. Note: I hated working for the ferries and wouldn't reccomend it to anyone. Sorry for the terrible math here.

David Hahn (dislike) was right about one thing, getting people to spend more money while they are on the ferry helps keep fares down. I don't have to buy a steak dinner, but if someone does hey good for them.

The road would go past Powell River, bridge across the islands and then into Campbell River and then be 45 minutes to the CV - would improve transportation options for the whole north Island which is the only place that affordable growth can happen on Van Isle.

you mean affordable sprawl in Campbell River? I thought you were supporting smart growth in the Comox Valley…

Confederation bridge to PEI costs 43.25$ per vehicle up to 2 axles for a return trip.

so your saying it would be the same bridge they could use here and the cost to build would be the similar? I highly doubt it, but who knows….