Service notices that BC Ferries’ Vesuvius-Crofton route is running behind schedule and experiencing overloads due to high traffic have become a daily expectation in recent months.
They will hopefully go back to being a rare event with the introduction of a new schedule starting today (Wednesday, June 27) that adds more trips and shifts dangerous cargo sailings outside of peak demand periods.
Service on the route was trimmed back in 2014 by dictate of the previous provincial government, which aimed to recover $14 million in operating costs across the coastal ferry system. A stabilizing world economic situation and fare freezes appear to have helped foster a rebound in traffic since then.
Year-end results for fiscal 2018, which BC Ferries released last week, show that vehicle traffic levels across the fleet were the highest ever experienced, while passenger traffic levels were the highest the company had experienced in 20 years. The company experienced a five per cent increase in vehicle traffic and a 4.7 per cent increase in passenger traffic compared to the previous year.
“The growth on [the Vesuvius-Crofton] route has been particularly strong, and we are adding sailings and making these sailings as an effort to better address this demand,” BC Ferries’ public affairs manager Darin Guenette told the Driftwood.
Additional morning sailings have been added on Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.