Let’s Hear It For The BC Ferries
Way back in the days of vinyl a Vancouver singer named John White (or Whyte?) recorded a song called “Let’s Hear It For The BC Ferries.”
Chorus: Let’s Hear It For The BC Ferries! PFFFFFBPT
That raspberry is at least as appropriate as it was thirty years ago.
What other service charges $17.50 for a reservation then insist that you show up a half hour early to claim it? Except that most ferry terminals are in places where traffic can delay you an extra half hour without warning, so really you need to arrive an hour early. Except your reservation isn’t valid of you’re MORE than an hour early.
Any way you slice it, you’re going to be stuck in a BC Ferries parking lot for an hour. There is no place more desolate.
What other business refuses to install debit card terminals in their kiosks? In an age where most people I know never carry more than $20 in cash, BC Ferries still insists that only paper money or credit cards are acceptable forms of payment. In Canada everyone uses debit cards to pay for everything. McDonalds accepts debit cards for Egg McMuffins for God sake!
The fact that there are ATM cash machines at the terminals and even on the ships, (At a rip-off bar price of $2 a transaction!!) shows that they could easily have debit service.
What other service – aside from public transit since it was semi-privatized – figures that the best way to solve declines in ridership is by REDUCING service and RAISING rates. Maybe this makes sense to the guy being paid a million dollars a year to run the company, but no-one who actually rides the ferries can see the sense in that idea.
Until this year it had been a very long time since I rode the BC Ferries. I’m fairly well disgusted. Nearly $100 each way for two people plus a truck. Food prices on board that are nearly double what they would be on dry land. Signage (see above) that defies all logic or intelligence. Scheduling that offers less spaces than customers want, and no allowance for the seemingly inevitable equipment problems.
I guess that the best summary of why BC Ferries is losing traffic is this: If you’re travelling from Vancouver to Nanaimo it’s actually CHEAPER to fly with Harbour Air!





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