B.C. Ferries CEO says he hears customers’ frustrations over Easter weekend cancellations | CBC News
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The CEO of B.C. Ferries defended the company at a news conference Thursday after it announced earlier in the week that numerous sailings will be cancelled over the Easter long weekend.
Nicolas Jimenez said he hears the frustration of customers.
“The past few days have been difficult, and we know this is not the level of service people expect from us, especially heading into a busy travel period like Easter.”
B.C. Ferries said Wednesday that there are two vessels unavailable for service: the Spirit of Vancouver Island is out due to a generator issue and the Queen of Surrey is delayed from a return to service, as it needs additional mechanical work that was identified after its annual refit had started.
The missing vessels mean numerous sailings between Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland have been cancelled or changed over the four-day long weekend.
Jimenez said he couldn’t point to a single solution that would have prevented these problems.
“They reflect a combination of factors. Aging vessels, unexpected breakdowns, [a tight refit schedule] and not having enough vessels in the fleet.”
He said the company is making significant investments to maintain and upgrade the fleet and stressed that these kinds of impacts are rare.
“We operate our vessels at over 99 per cent reliability, but we also know that on days like this that’s not what it feels like.”
Jimenez said engineer teams are working around the clock to assess if the Spirit of Vancouver Island will come back in time to support sailings over the long weekend and said he’s cautiously optimistic it’s possible. He said the status of the vessel will be known sometime Friday morning.
Customers urged to plan ahead
Some sailings have been cancelled on the route between Victoria and Vancouver (Swartz Bay to Tsawwassen), and B.C. Ferries said a revised schedule is in place through April 8.
Four Thursday sailings were cancelled between Vancouver and Nanaimo (Tsawwassen and Duke Point), along with two sailings on Friday.
The ferry operator has added four sailings on both Saturday and Sunday.
Affected customers with reservations have been contacted, according to B.C. Ferries.
Jimenez said long waits for standby traffic are expected and noted that parking lots often reach capacity on long weekends.
He advised customers to plan ahead and consider walking on, taking public transit or adjusting travel plans.