Long waits, full vessels make for long weekend headaches on BC Ferries

Travellers relying on B.C.’s ferry system faced another difficult day Friday with massive lineups and crowded terminals headed into the Canada Day long weekend.

And passengers headed to Vancouver Island who do not have a reservation may already be out of luck.

People who arrived to terminals early hoping to head between the mainland and Vancouver Island were met with waits of up to six sailings.

2:10 Long weekend with long BC Ferries waits

By 1 p.m., BC Ferries warned that virtually all non-reservation drive-on spaces for travel from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay (Victoria) had been filled for the day.

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Standby travel from Horseshoe Bay to Departure Bay (Nanaimo) was also completely filled until 8:30 p.m., the ferry company said.

Passengers headed from Victoria and Nanaimo to the mainland appeared to be facing better prospects with busy traffic but some space still available on afternoon and evening sailings.

All major routes were experiencing heavy demand.

Making matters worse, the B.C. Ferries website was intermittently down, leaving would-be travellers reliant on social media updates to plan their trip. Regular updates can be found on the BC Ferries Twitter page.

While the ferry company has traditionally been strained on long weekends, even more so in recent years due to a labour shortage, the root of the Canada Day weekend troubles is the loss of one of BC Ferries’ key vessels.

BC Ferries was forced to shuffle more than 6,600 reservations across the weekend after the company had to scratch the Coastal Celebration from its roster.

3:54 BC Ferries ship refit will cause long weekend delays

The vessel’s removal from service was due to an “unplanned” and “extended refit” involving repairs to its propulsion system taking longer than expected, the company said.

With the loss of the vessel — and its vehicle carrying capacity — BC Ferries has been urging people to walk on to its vessels if possible.

However, it has also begun to run out of parking lot space for walk-ons, prompting the company to encourage people to “consider taxi service” to its terminals.