Starting next summer, British Columbians will be able to travel directly between downtown Vancouver and Nanaimo’s harbour on a new direct passenger ferry service.
The Vancouver Island Ferry Company has yet to announce rates or schedules, but says it plans to be up and running by summer 2023.
In a media release Tuesday, the company said sailings between the Nanaimo Port Authority Terminal and the Vancouver Harbour Flight Centre at the Vancouver Convention Centre would take about 70 minutes.
That’s about half an hour faster than the BC Ferries sailing between Nanaimo’s Departure Bay terminal and Horseshoe Bay in West Vancouver.
The company plans to serve the route using a pair of high-speed catamarans built by Dutch shipbuilder the Damen Group.
Each vessel can handle about 350 passengers. The company says there will be several classes, and people will be able to reserve their seats.
A spokesperson for the company said they expected to announce fares next spring, but that there would be different options, such as business class, and that rates would be “reasonable.”
Direct passenger ferry service between the two cities has been a goal for decades, and there have been several failed attempts to serve the route, including by hovercraft in the 1960s and 1980s.
In 1992, Royal Sealink Express served the route with a 296-passenger catamaran, but operated for just 11 months before folding.
The most recent attempt at direct service was the HarbourLynx ferry company, using the same class of vessel as Royal Sealink.
The company operated for three years before going out of business in February, 2006.
Since then the concept has remained a topic of debate in the island city, most recently appearing as a plank in BC Liberal candidate Tony Harris’ platform during the 2019 Nanaimo provincial byelection.
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