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BC Ferries
Service in British Columbia, Canada From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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British Columbia Ferry Services Inc., operating as BC Ferries (BCF), is a former provincial Crown corporation, now operating as an independently managed, publicly owned Canadian company. BC Ferries provides all major passenger and vehicle ferry services for coastal and island communities in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Set up in 1960 to provide a similar service to that provided by the Black Ball Line and the Canadian Pacific Railway, which were affected by job action at the time, BC Ferries has become the largest passenger ferry line in North America,[2] operating a fleet of 41 vessels with a total passenger and crew capacity of over 27,000, serving 47 locations on the B.C. coast.
The federal and provincial governments subsidize BC Ferries to provide agreed service levels on essential links between the BC mainland, coastal islands, and parts of the mainland without road access. The inland ferries operating on British Columbia's rivers and lakes are not run by BC Ferries. The responsibility for their provision rests with the British Columbia Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, which contracts operation to various private sector companies.
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Structure
At its inception, BC Ferries was a division of the British Columbia Toll Highways and Bridges Authority, a provincial Crown corporation. Through successive reorganizations, it evolved into the British Columbia Ferry Authority and then the British Columbia Ferry Corporation, both of which were also provincial Crown corporations. In 2003, the Government of British Columbia announced that BC Ferries, which had been in debt, would be reorganized into a private corporation, implemented through the passage of the Coastal Ferry Act[3] (Bill 18–2003). The single voting share of BC Ferries Corporation is held by the provincial government's BC Ferry Authority, which operates under the rules of the Act.
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History
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In the summer of 1958, a strike by employees of CP Steamships and the Black Ball Line caused the Social Credit government of W. A. C. Bennett to decide that the coastal ferry service in British Columbia needed to be government-owned, and so it set about creating BC Ferries. Minister of Highways Phil Gaglardi was tasked with overseeing the new Crown corporation and its rapid expansion.
BC Ferries' first route, commissioned in 1960, was between Swartz Bay, north of Sidney on Vancouver Island, and Tsawwassen, an area in Delta, using just two vessels. These ships were the now-retired MV Tsawwassen and the MV Sidney. The next few years saw a dramatic growth of the B.C. ferry system as it took over operations of the Black Ball Line and other major private companies providing vehicle ferry service between Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland. As the ferry system expanded and started to service other small coastal communities, BC Ferries had to build more vessels, many of them in the first five years of its operations, to keep up with the demand. Another method of satisfying increasing demand for service was BC Ferries' unique "stretch and lift" program, involving seven vessels being cut in half and extended, and five of those vessels later cut in half again and elevated, to increase their passenger and vehicle-carrying capacities. The vast majority of the vessels in the fleet were built in B.C. waters, with only two foreign purchases and one domestic purchase. In the mid-1980s, BC Ferries took over the operations of the saltwater branch of the B.C. Ministry of Transportation and Highways, which ran ferry services to very small coastal communities. This action dramatically increased the size of BC Ferries' fleet and its geographical service area. The distinctive "dogwood on green" flag that BC Ferries used between 1960 and 2003 gave the service its popular nickname "the Dogwood Fleet".
During the 1990s, the NDP government commissioned a series of three fast ferries to improve ferry service between the Mainland and Vancouver Island. The ships proved problematic when they suffered many technical issues and cost double what was expected. The fast ferries were eventually sold off for $19.4 million in 2003.
A controversy began in July 2004 when BC Ferries, under a new American CEO, announced that the company had disqualified all Canadian bids to build three new Coastal-class ships, and only the proposals from European shipyards were being considered. The contract was estimated at $542 million for the three ships, each designed to carry 370 vehicles and 1600 passengers.
The argument for domestic construction of the ferries was that it would employ numerous British Columbia workers, revitalize the sagging B.C. shipbuilding industry, and entitle the provincial government to a large portion of the cost in the form of taxes. BC Ferries CEO David Hahn claimed that building the ferries in Germany would "save almost $80 million and could lead to lower fares."[4]
On September 17, 2004, BC Ferries awarded[5] the vessel construction contract to Germany's Flensburger shipyard. The contract protected BC Ferries from any delays through a fixed price and fixed schedule contract. Coastal Renaissance entered service in March 2008, while Coastal Inspiration was delivered the same month and entered service in June that year. The third ship, Coastal Celebration, was delivered in June of the same year and entered service in November.
On August 18, 2006, BC Ferries commissioned[6] Flensburger to build a new vessel for its Inside Passage route, with the contract having many of the same types of terms as that for the Coastal-class vessels. The new northern service vessel, Northern Expedition, was delivered in March 2008, and entered service in May of the same year.
On August 26, 2012, BC Ferries announced that it would be cutting 98 round trips on its major routes starting in the fall and winter of 2012 as part of a four-year plan to save $1 million on these routes. Service cuts have included the elimination of supplementary sailings on the Swartz Bay–Tsawwassen route, 18 round trips on the Horseshoe Bay–Departure Bay route, and 48 round trips, the largest number of cuts, on the Duke Point–Tsawwassen route, with plans to look for savings on the smaller unprofitable routes in the future.[7]
Free ferry trips for seniors were suspended from April 2014[8] to April 2018.[9]
In the fall of 2014, BC Ferries announced the addition of three new Intermediate-class ferries to phase out Queen of Burnaby and Queen of Nanaimo.[10][11] These three vessels were to be named the Salish class; Salish Orca, Salish Eagle and Salish Raven. In 2022, Salish Heron, the fourth Salish-class vessel, entered service. All four ferries were designed and built by Remontowa Shipbuilding S.A. in Gdansk, Poland, and are dual-fuel, capable of operating on liquefied natural gas and marine diesel. These vessels are a part of BC Ferries standardized fleet plan, which will take the number of ship classes in the BC Ferries fleet from 17 to 5.[12] The proposed replacement classes are Northern, Major, Salish, Shuttle and Island. Additionally, there will still be three unique (unclassed) vessels in the fleet after standardization is complete. BC Ferries has stated, however, that this total standardization of the fleet will not be achieved for another 40 years. As of March 2024, the fleet has so far been reduced to 11 classes of vessels, with 8 unique (unclassed) vessels remaining as well.
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Financial results
Current routes
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Route numbers are used internally by BC Ferries only. All routes except Route 13 and the Unregulated routes carry vehicles.[13]
*Operated by third-party contractors, under the sponsorship of BC Ferries.[16]
Maps
Numbers in blue circles are ferry route numbers. Provincial highway trailblazers are added where appropriate.
Zone 1 – Southern Gulf Islands
Zone 2 – Central Georgia Strait
Zone 3 – Northern Georgia Strait
Zone 4 – Queen Charlotte Sound
Zone 5 – North Coast
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Former routes
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Fleet
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BC Ferries has the largest fleet of vehicle ferry vessels in the world. There are at least 45 vessels, ranging from small passenger-only water taxis, up to the 358-car Spirit-class ferries. All of the vessels in use on BC Ferries' official routes are roll-on/roll-off car ferries, with the exception of those assigned to Route 13. Most of the major vessels are based on similar designs, which are aggregated into classes of ferries:
- Island-class ferry
- Salish-class ferry
- Spirit-class ferry
- Coastal-class ferry
- C-class ferry
- I-class ferry
- Century-class ferry
- Q-class ferry
- T-class ferry
- K-class ferry
- N-class ferry
- Unclassed ships of BC Ferries
New major vessels
In 2018, BC Ferries announced its intention to procure seven new major vessels to replace the five aging C-class ferries and MV Queen of New Westminster (with a net increase of one major vessel).[18] Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the project was paused temporarily.
In February 2024, Ferries released renderings of the new major vessels, which were designed by Norwegian naval architecture firm LMG Marin.[19] Later that year, in September, it was announced that BC Ferries would prefer to build the seven ferries in two phases and a request for proposal was sent out to "pre-qualified" shipyards to build the first batch – five of the seven vessels. The final two would be built at a later phase.[20] This plan for procurement required final approval from the independent BC Ferries Commissioner, Eva Hage, who approved the purchasing of four – not five – new vessels for the first phase in March 2025. Hage agreed that new vessels will benefit both the province and the ferry system, but she asserted that a fifth vessel would not be in the public's interest due to high costs. Both BC Ferries CEO Nicholas Jimenez and the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce expressed their frustrations with this decision, with the latter demanding premier David Eby to do what he can to get a fifth vessel approved, to which Eby expressed sympathy for a fifth vessel; however, Eby noted that both the Commissioner's Office and BC Ferries are independent of the provincial government.[21]
BC Ferries indicated that the request for proposal would be open to all shipbuilders, both Canadian and international; however, in April 2025, Ferries announced that no Canadian shipyards had submit a bid for the project. BC shipyard Seaspan ULC had previously indicated that building ferries in BC would be impossible due to international competitors, who pay lower wages and have less stringent environmental standards. It also added that it does not currently have the capacity to deliver these new vessels within BC Ferries' timeline, unless the province provides incentives. Seaspan also indicated that it hopes to be a bidder for the second phase.[22] In June 2025, Ferries announced that it had awarded the first phase of the project to Chinese state-owned CMI Weihai Shipyards in Shandong province. This decision drew criticism from many, including from federal transport minister Chrystia Freeland. BC Ferries defended its decision, saying that it was the strongest bid by a "significant margin."[23]
The first of the four vessels is expected to enter service by 2029, with all four vessels joining the fleet by 2031. Queen of Alberni will be the first to retire, followed by Queen of Coquitlam, Queen of New Westminster, thence Queen of Cowichan. Queen of Surrey and Queen of Oak Bay will be refitted to extend their lifespan until at least 2036, when the sixth and seventh new major vessels can be expected to enter revenue service.[24]
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Accidents and incidents
See also
Other ferry services operating in BC
Ferry services elsewhere
- Alaska Marine Highway – Alaska's Marine Highway System, similar to BC Ferries. Also serves Prince Rupert.
- Inter-Island Ferry Authority
- Marine Atlantic – An east-coast analogue of BC Ferries.
- Washington State Ferries
- Baja Ferries - a Mexican analogue of BC Ferries
Shipyards
- Allied Shipbuilders Ltd.
- Burrard Dry Dock
- Vancouver Shipyard
- Victoria Machinery Depot
- Washington Marine Group – Originally called the Vancouver Shipyards Co. Ltd.
- Yarrow Shipbuilders
- Damen Shipyard[25][26]
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References
External links
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