Queen of New Westminster back in service after nearly 200-day outage

After nearly 200 days out of service, one of BC Ferries’ key vessels is back on the water.

The return of the Queen of New Westminster comes just in time for spring break.

BC Ferries pulled the vessel from service in September 2024, after its propeller detached due to structural fatigue.

Crews had to fully disassemble the propulsion system, during which they found other problems — resulting in a total repair and refit bill of $5.5 million. The company says it also lost $8.5 million in revenue with the vessel out of service.

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Meanwhile, repair crews found problems with the Queen of Oak Bay’s shaft bearings earlier this week during its scheduled refit, delaying its return to service. That has pushed scheduled work on the larger Spirit of Vancouver Island, which will now be out of service until the end of the month.

The newly repaired Queen of New Westminster will cover many of the Spirit of Vancouver Island’s Metro Vancouver-Victoria sailings over spring break but will do so at a reduced capacity.

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BC Ferries said the incident speaks to the growing complexity of maintaining some of its older vessels and the importance of its upcoming new vessel procurement process. The queen-class ferries were built between the 1960s and 1980s.

The company is looking to build five new major vessels and conduct refits to extend the lives of two others.

The BC Ferries commissioner is expected to rule on the proposal at the end of the month.