Gabriola Island ferry due for schedule tweak after poor on-time performance

He added it’s not uncommon to see the route significantly behind, at which point BC Ferries will cancel a round trip in order to re-establish the schedule.

A majority of the delays stem from traffic volumes and the accumulated time it takes to unload and load the vessel. An increase in construction on the Island was also identified as a culprit, with more workers coming from Nanaimo to projects on Gabriola.

Earle said the solution is a lot more complicated than just adding sailings. The first boat leaves Gabriola Island at 5:15 a.m. with crossings regularly until a final 11 p.m. departure from Nanaimo.

“It’s really hard to make it work. Demand is going up and down a lot, BC Ferries is talking about making minor adjustments to the schedule to make it work a little better. That might help a little but it’s not going to make a huge difference.”

BC Ferries spokesperson Deborah Marshall said any changes would maintain the same number of crossings, but adjust the timing of the sailings to improve on-time performance. The goal is to implement the schedule “as soon as it makes sense.”

“We know there’s specific sailing times that are very important to the community, so we like to keep those and also we have to address the on-time performance, make sure the ship can do the crossing, discharge and load with traffic in the time we’ve got allotted,” Marshall said.

A 3:45 p.m. departure from Nanaimo to Gabriola, a key one for school students come September, may be adjusted to make it easier for kids to catch at the end of their day.

In developing schedules, BC Ferries takes into account not only operating times, but shift lengths for their crew and required overnight time where the vessel is in dock to allow engineers to conduct maintenance.

The change in schedule is a band-aid solution until BC Ferries debuts two, new Island-class vessels on the route in the first half of 2022.

Operating two vessels instead of one is seen with a level of skepticism on Gabriola Island, however it’s eyed as a long term solution to constant late sailings by BC Ferries.

“It certainly will be very frequent service. We’ll be able to double the frequency of sailings during peak times and significantly increase capacity overall.”

Over 800,000 passengers travelled on the route in between April 2019 and March 2020.

Data from BC Ferries showed 86.5 per cent of all sailings left within 10 minutes of their scheduled departure over the same time, with the number dropping to 77.7 per cent from April 2020 to the end of March 2021.

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by Alex Rawnsley

Gabriola Island ferry due for schedule tweak after poor on-time performance

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