Chaos at BC Ferries Horseshoe Bay Terminal as traffic backed up onto Highway 1

BC Ferries says vehicle sailings from the Horseshoe Bay Ferry Terminal to Departure Bay are all full, as of 1 p.m. on Friday.

The organization says people with reservations and foot passengers can still go to the Horseshoe Bay Terminal but anyone without a reservation should stay away.

West Vancouver police are also warning people to stay away as Highway 1 approaching Horseshoe Bay is heavily backed up due to Whistler traffic, along with ferry traffic.

BC Ferries said that the congestion on Highway 1 was compounded by a surge in Whistler-bound traffic and a broken-down commercial vehicle blocking a lane on the Upper Levels.

“This morning what happened was so many people had showed up without reservations that the people that did have reservations ended up further back in the queue and our teams on the ground did as much as they could do because of the lineups and because of that the backups onto the highway there were people with reservations that didn’t make their sailing on the first sailing this morning,” Jeff Groot, the executive director of communications with BC Ferries told Global News.

He said 40 vehicles missed their reservation on the first sailing.

He also said that due to WorkSafeBC requirements, flaggers are not allowed to be on the highway, past BC Ferries terminal property, until after 7 a.m.

“One of the challenges we have is we’re working with third-party traffic flaggers,” Groot added. “And so we need to make sure that they’re safe. We need to be sure that our customers are safe, but that’s one of requirements that WorkSafeBC has in place.”

Aaron Krombholz was waiting in the lineup to get on a ferry and said they saw line-ups of cars lined up on the Sea to Sky Highway.

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He said they ended up having to leave the ferry terminal on Friday morning after already trying to catch a ferry on Thursday night.

“We got to the ferry terminal this morning at about 5:45 a.m.,” Krombholz said. “We left at about 8 a.m. when we realized that the 7:55 sailing was full and we weren’t going to get on anything else.”

He added that when they left, cars were backed up on Highway 1 to the Caufield Exit, more than four kilometres away.

“We were chatting with a bunch of different people who were saying ‘look, we have a reservation, but we can’t get there. We can’t get to the gate to pay to go in and get in the queue for their boat’,” Krombholz added.

On Thursday, the organization encouraged customers to plan ahead, particularly those travelling on the busy Horseshoe Bay-Departure Bay and Horseshoe Bay-Langdale routes, and warned that customers without reservations should expect “very limited” standby availability during peak travel days.

Thursday and Friday heading to Vancouver Island and Sunday and Monday returning to the mainland are considered peak travel days.

“We know people are travelling this long weekend to visit family, support local businesses, and enjoy all that this beautiful province has to offer,” Melanie Lucia, vice-president of customer experience at BC Ferries, said in a statement on Thursday.

“British Columbians rely on the ferry system, and we’re doing everything we can to keep them moving. With a little extra planning, there are still ways to travel smoothly and stay connected to the places and people that matter.”

Groot apologized to the customers that were affected on Friday.

“We apologize to those customers that missed their sailings,” he said.

“We were happy to be able to get them on after just the one sailing delay, but we know that’s not ideal. These are challenges we’re dealing with with an aging terminal. The Horseshoe Bay terminal is one of our oldest.”

Groot added that they are issuing refunds to passengers who missed their reservations.