B.C. Ferries is advising travellers to plan ahead this summer, as they brace for what they expect to be their busiest season yet, with aging infrastructure.
The ferry service is adding 1,000 new sailings to high-traffic routes, and has hired 600 new seasonal workers to deal with the influx in summer demand.
“We are prepared for summer,” said Stephen Jones, B.C. Ferries’ vice-president of engineering, at a press event in Tsawwassen on Wednesday. “But we are transparent about our limits.”
B.C. Ferries carried a record-breaking nine million passengers over 102,000 trips last summer. With more Canadians travelling locally this year, it’s a trend they expect to continue.
Jones acknowledged that rising demand, coupled with aging vessels and terminals, puts strain on the critical transportation service.
He said that, while they can’t anticipate or eliminate all service-disruption risks, B.C. Ferries is “as ready as we can be.”
Jones said B.C. Ferries is spending an average of $75 million per fiscal year, mostly in local shipyards, to maintain their aging fleet while they wait for new vessels.
They’ve undertaken 21 major projects since September 2024, including repairs and refits, to get all 37 of their current vessels in operation in time for summer.
“We’re doing everything we can to repair but we also want our customers to understand the reality we’re facing,” Jones said. “In peak season, all of our players are on the ice, some are playing through injuries and we don’t have a bench to draw from.”
Some of the repairs have included modifications to improve fuel mileage and reduce underwater noise, allowing the ships to operate in “whale safe mode.”
B.C. Ferries has four new smaller, island-class vessels slated to arrive in 2026, and four new major vessels approved for arrival between 2029 and 2031.
In the meantime, Jones said “we’re stretching every mile out of our aging fleet.”
Earlier this week, a berth issue in Tsawwassen resulted in a ferry needing to re-dock midway through unloading. B.C. Ferries has warned passengers travelling in and out of that terminal to expect delays due to congestion while they work to repair the berth.
The early season got off to a rough start when B.C. Ferries apologized for major travel delays at some terminals over the Easter long weekend. An unanticipated volume of drive-up passengers combined with an unexpected maintenance issue resulted in hours-long delays at the Horseshoe Bay terminal.
Jones said last year’s fleet reliability was 99.6 per cent, which amounts to about one missed trip per 250, and they hope to increase their reliability this year.
B.C. Ferries is also making improvements to its current conditions platform and customer service tools to ease the travel process across the board, said Lindsay Matthews, B.C. Ferries vice-president of public affairs and marketing.
Matthews said B.C. Ferries is aware of customer frustration around the current conditions platform, which can sometimes inaccurately predict ferries being full when there is actually deck space available.
“Some of the tools we have available now are our current conditions platform in a new test format we think is more intuitive and easy to follow, live webcams, vessel trackers and service notice alerts that customers can sign up for to keep you apprised of what to expect,” Matthews said.
She said the introduction of saver fares and more strategic scheduling has resulted in a 17 per cent shift in demand to off-peak travel times.
She also said 29 per cent fewer unreserved customers travelling on the Swartz Bay-Tsawwassen route have had to endure sailing waits.
“Customer experience is a priority. We’re making these improvements to things like the current condition site, while we actively work on more significant upgrades to eventually get to the place where we really need to be for our customers, which are things like customer notification tools, like SMS messaging,” she explained. “These things are in progress, but we’re not there yet.”
