The CEO of BC Ferries is apologizing after a chaotic long weekend that left more than 13,000 passengers stranded.
Nicolas Jimenez acknowledges that the ferry system didn’t meet expectations during one of the busiest travel weekends of the year.
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“Sorry for what happened this weekend. When our ships fail us, we fail our customers,” Jimenez told 1130 NewRadio in an interview.
At the same time, he points to the company’s aging fleet and lack of backup vessels.
Those could be used if ships malfunction, which happened this Easter weekend with the Spirit of Vancouver Island, which sails between Tsawwassen and Swartz Bay, and the Queen of Surrey, which serves the Langdale-Horseshoe Bay run.
With two ships out of service, ferry terminals saw long wait times, with some customers being turned away at Horseshoe Bay.
Passengers at the Tsawwassen ferry terminal had to wait up to seven sailings before boarding a ferry.
“Really, we had sort of our worst moment,” Jimenez said, summing up the past days.
“And if we can’t deliver the commitment that we’ve made to get you to where you need to go, clearly we haven’t lived up to the expectations.”
In his opinion, the solution is more funding, which would allow BC Ferries to invest in additional vessels.
“Essentially to lay out the case for what we think it’s going to cost to run the system and then to reinvest in the system, reinvest in our terminals, reinvest in our ships,” Jimenez explained.
“What we know to be true today is that there is a gap between what it costs to run the ferry service and the revenues we bring in. There’s a substantial gap.”
He understands that passengers are angry but says that he can only ensure running the ferry service in the model that has been given to BC Ferries by the provincial government.
“As to the design of the system, I would leave that to the people who are elected to do just that.”
Jimenez likens the urgency for new vessels to the wear and tear of driving a car every day.
“A lot of ferry operators there, particularly the big ones, which we would compare ourselves to, they run their ships 20 years generally, and then they would look to replace them. So, they’d sell them. And then they bring in newer ships,” he said.
“It’s like a car; new cars tend to run better than old cars because things wear out. We run our ships 40 to 50, in some cases 60 years.”
The oldest ship in the BC Ferries fleet, the Queen of New Westminster, is more than 60 years old, and the newest ship sailing between the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island, the Coastal Celebration, entered service in 2008.
In March of last year, the BC Ferries Commissioner approved the procurement of four new major vessels for the company. The first of the new vessels is expected to enter service in 2029, with four operational by 2031.
