The BC Ferries Christmas schedule starts December 20th, but there won’t be any additional trips for Langdale – Horseshoe Bay.
Deborah Marshall of BC Ferries says what they’re doing on that run is “expanding” the schedule to allow more time between sailings. “What we want to do is just give the ship and shore crews a little bit more in-dock time to accommodate the number of vehicles coming on and off the vessels over that holiday period,” she says. “If we give them a bit more time we can keep to our posted schedule and have better on time performance.”
That move isn’t sitting well with some Transit users on the Sunshine Coast, upset that the bus schedule and ferry schedule will be out of sync over the holidays. It also means the 5:30 sailing out of Horseshoe Bay shifts to 5:50 from the 20th to 29th, which is likely to irk commuters.
Sunshine Coast Transit says it’s just not practical to try to match the schedule for only nine days, especially when it would involve re-assigning drivers over the holidays.
As well as the other changes, the first round trip on Christmas Day is being cancelled, something Ferries has done in past years because of low demand.
As for the Horseshoe Bay – Nanaimo route, along with using an expanded schedule, Ferries says they’ll be offering thirty-eight additional trips between December 20th and 29th.
Click here to see what BC Ferries’ predictions for the busiest travel times over the holidays.
