Spirit of British Columbia Photo Eric Lee
One of B.C. Ferries' largest ships, the Spirit of British Columbia, is back in service on the Tsawwassen to Victoria route starting June 6 after a series of upgrades.
The passenger areas have new carpeting, the furniture upholstery has been updated, new table tops have been installed and all public washrooms have been refurbished.
BC Ferries has added a new Arbutus Coffee Bar on Deck 6 and doubled the size of Passages --the onboard gift shop.
B.C. Ferries spokeswoman Deborah Marshall says they have also added mobile charging stations. "This vessel was built in 1993 and a lot of people didn't have cellphones back then so certainly we're see a lot higher demand for people to be able to plug in their devices."
The vessel has been converted to operate on 'cleaner' liquefied natural gas from FortisBC instead of marine diesel.
The ferry operator expects that the change will reduce CO2 emissions by 12,500 tonnes per year, which is the equivalent of taking 2,500 cars off the road every year and save millions in fuel costs.
B.C. Ferries other largest vessel, the Spirit of Vancouver Island, will undergo a mid-life upgrade from fall 2018 to spring 2019 and is scheduled to be back in service for the busy summer season.
The two largest vessels in the fleet can each carry about 358 vehicles across two car decks and up to 2,100 passengers and crew.
