Travellers at the Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal were greeted with multiple sailing waits Friday, as B.C. entered the Labour Day long weekend.
But BC Ferries says it is ready to welcome over 500,000 passengers and 200,000 vehicles through to Monday.
“We did quite a bit of work in advance of the summer season as a whole to prepare and ensure that this summer ran a lot more smoothly,” BC Ferries spokesperson Ceilidh Marlow said.
“We optimize our refit schedule for all of our vessels so that they would all be in service in advance of the summer season, and that has worked out really, really well and gone very smoothly. We also hired an additional nearly 600 employees.”
Around 90,000 vehicles and 270,000 passengers are expected to travel between Metro Vancouver and Vancouver Island alone over the weekend.
Most reservations on many of the major routes for Friday were already sold out by the morning.
Passengers were being advised to consider travelling during off-peak hours to avoid waits, or to consider leaving the car at home and walking on.
Some of the rush was driven by football fans, who are heading to Victoria to watch the BC Lions and Ottawa Redblacks clash at Saturday’s Touchdown Pacific matchup.