By Mark Edward Nero
BC Ferries, the contracted ferry service provider for British Columbia, has announced that Berth One, which is the primary operational berth at its Langdale terminal, will be temporarily closed from mid-January to mid-April 2017 while marine structures are upgraded or replaced.
“BC Ferries needs to continue to invest and renew its terminal infrastructure in order to provide safe and reliable service,” Mark Wilson, BC Ferries’ Vice President of Engineering, said in a statement. “Once completed, we expect at least 20 years of dependable service from Berth One.”
During the closure, the Langdale-Horseshoe Bay service will operate out of Berth Two at Langdale terminal, which allows single-deck vehicle loading and unloading as opposed to double-deck. Therefore, two vessels will operate on approximately hourly sailings between both terminals.
Each sailing will offer about half the vehicle capacity of current service as they’ll be main-deck loads only. However, with twice as many sailings each day, the overall capacity will remain essentially the same.
Passenger capacity is expected to actually increase during the period, with two vessels providing service on the route.
In order to accommodate the berth construction, the water taxi service to Gambier and Keats Islands, provided by Kona Winds using their Stormaway vessels, will be temporarily relocated from Langdale terminal to the Gibsons Harbour Marina.
A webpage has been set up to outline the closure and give details of the alternate service on both routes. The modified schedules have also been published. Customers can visit bcferries.com/about/projects to learn more on the alternate service, and see the ‘schedules’ tab to view the schedules of both routes.
