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V2V ferry cancels winter trips, changes upcoming schedule

Riverside Marine’s V2V Empress ferry between downtown Victoria and downtown Vancouver will no longer operate during the winter months.

Riverside Marine’s V2V Empress ferry between downtown Victoria and downtown Vancouver will no longer operate during the winter months.

The company also announced the catamaran will run on a new schedule between Victoria and Vancouver as of Sept. 20.

 Photograph By DARREN STONE, TIMES COLONISTPhotograph By DARREN STONE, TIMES COLONIST

V2V said Monday it has decided to wrap up service this year on Oct. 15 and resume on March 15, citing poor weather in winter months.

The current schedule, which sees the Empress leave Victoria at 9 a.m. and Vancouver at 1:30 p.m., will continue until the Sept. 20 schedule shift. At that point, the Empress will leave Vancouver at 8 a.m. and Victoria at 4 p.m. That means Vancouver passengers will have the option of a day trip to Victoria.

When service resumes next year, the Empress will depart from Vancouver at 8 a.m. and leave Victoria at 4:30 p.m.

Julian Wright, V2V general manager, said there has been “overwhelming” feedback from industry and passengers in favour of changing the schedule.

More passengers catch the Empress in Vancouver than in Victoria, he said.

The decision not to run from mid-October to mid-March is due to the difficult weather the vessel experienced this year. Larger vessels can handle rough waters more easily than the catamaran, Wright said.

Wright is not revealing the ferry’s passengers numbers, but said the company was “very pleased with the season that we have had.”

Numbers were higher than in 2017, when the vessel ended up spending four months in drydock after it lost an engine.