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Bicycles will cost $2 per trip on the MS Quinsam, and new charges will apply to under-height vehicles as of April 1, 2010: that according to BC Ferries representatives who spoke at the latest Gabriola Ferry Advisory Committee meeting this past week.

The changes are part of the plans being brought to the table with local FACs as BC Ferries conducts its spring round of sessions.

Mark Stefenson, VP Sales and Community Relations for BC Ferries said, “So far the reaction has been positive or neutral at worst - we still have four or so FAC meetings left. Our intention is to make those adjustments next year. [But it is] still part of the process right now and we have [local FAC] meetings in the fall.”

The good news is that bicyclists using an Experience Card will get an immediate $2 refund when they cross, with a net cost of $0.

Grant Bierlmeier, Director of Pricing and Revenue Performance for BC Ferries, explained Gabriola was one of the few minor routes left that did not charge for bicycles -- putting a charge in place was more an act of principle than of economic necessity.

He added that the Gabriola route has the highest bike use -- it also has the highest usage of the Experience Card.

“In May, for example, 795 bikes went through on this route -- 588 of those were by customers using an Experience Card,” said Grant.

The other good news is over-height vehicles under 20-feet long will no longer have to pay over-height charges.

Grant explained there is no logical reason for over-height fares on the Quinsam.

“Your problem is one of deck space -- a 40-foot vehicle takes up space another consumer could be using.”

Fares will instead be based solely on vehicle length.

FAC Chair André Lemieux asked what will happen to the guy who tows a utility trailer with his SUV -- neither is over-height, but the length is over 20-feet.

Grant explained that specific person will now be paying a higher price, but, based on sales over the last year, those specific types of consumers make up less than two percent of ferry users.

The new over-height/over-length fare changes do not include commercial vehicles or bus rates.

Grant began his presentation at the meeting explaining the Quinsam route has a target revenue for 2009/10 of $5.4 million.

Rob Clarke, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for BC Ferries said the total target revenue for BC Ferries will be $108 million for the same period.

Captain Chris Frappell gave an operations report to the FAC, stating the overall usage of the Quinsam is down about seven percent for vehicles and down five percent for passengers for the 2008-09 period versus the 2007-08 period.

John Woods of the Gabriola Ferry Advisory Council asked if there was any indication what the drop in ridership was due to aside from tariff increases.

Rob replied, “The question of tariff, there are all sorts of opinions on that. All of our analysis indicate there is very little elasticity. People don’t like prices [to increase], but that doesn’t make them change their travel patterns.

“I make the point here that in December and January, the government sponsored a 33 percent reduction in fares.

“Granted in December there were snow storms. But in January, when it was clear, we saw a bump from people making appointments missed in December, but you didn’t see much of a rise over last year. On this route, you were down, even with a 33 percent reduction in price.

“So again, I’m not sure that doesn’t buttress up our external analysis that pricing, while important, is still not driving major decisions.

“I think there is more planning of trips, taking time to car pool -- thus the drop in vehicle use.”

Rob added he believes the vehicle drop is due to more people walking on because of capacity constraints -- the entire FAC was caught in the 4:50pm lineup and walked on, leaving one member of the FAC to drive the vehicle over on the 5:55pm ferry from Nanaimo.

On the issue of capacity, the challenge of the Quinsam’s decreased capacity was brought up at the meeting, with Chris confirming that for now, the Quinsam has just the one license to operate: no number of extra staff will enable the Quinsam’s capacity to be increased until the new safety equipment is installed as Phase 2 of the Quinsam’s mid-life refit.

Chris said in other locations, BC Ferries has asked schools to give at least two weeks’ notice to allow for all Transport Canada regulations to be met properly.

In Phase 2 (taking place between October 5th, 2009 and March 31st, 2010) the lounges, washrooms, wheelhouse, lifesaving equipment and new right-angle drive units will be revamped. At some point in July, the Nanaimo-side ramp will be paved.

The lounges will be done to resemble the new styling seen on the newer vessels.

John Woods said, “There’s going to be an issue in keeping it nice, and I think it needs to be, in the long range plan, addressed. The public has to be aware of it. It is an issue. I’ve been riding the ferry as a foot passenger for 20 years. Some years are better than others. Sometimes the ferry staff can deal with it, sometimes the crews don’t want to deal with it.

“If you’re going to upgrade things, there is a significant potential for damage and I think that needs to be addressed somehow. I don’t think it can be ‘spend all this money, create this wonderful environment’ and then a month later say ‘that was great while it lasted’.”

Chris said, “On vessels where we’ve done the upgrades, if we’ve provided a vessel that is nice, the passengers have treated it with respect. Defacing is generally reduced. I think, generally speaking, if you give people good things they tend to want to look after them.”

Larger windows and a single rotating set of controls will be installed in the wheelhouse to allow for a more efficient system.

Chris said, “The engines of the Quinsam are fairly new, but the right angle drives have exceeded their life expectancy and will be changed.”

John Woods brought up the issue of the noise experienced since the Quinsam returned from Phase 1 of the mid-life refit.

“It’s difficult to carry on conversations in the lounge. You like to be able to talk without shouting.”

Chris brought up photos of the Quinsam’s quasi-sister ship the Quinitsa to describe how changes in the exhaust system should help with the noise.

“At the moment, the engine exhaust stacks on the Quinsam come out of the engine room, go through a silencer, go back through the engine room and exhaust underneath the hull.

“When she comes back from Phase 2 the engines will exhaust directly out of the roof into a silencer then into the atmosphere.

“That will have an impact on the noise levels in the lounge because we won’t be bringing the exhaust through the engine rooms twice.

“As far as insulation goes, the entire lounge fittings are being withdrawn and being replaced with new materials. I will ask the project manager if sound proofing will be used, but I can’t say.”

John said, “We get spoiled with the Bowen Queen, where we can carry on actual conversations, and have tables.”

The new lifesaving equipment will be slides to a large raft exiting from the two central points on either side of the Quinsam -- imagine the emergency slides seen on large jumbo jets attached to inflatable rafts capable of holding up to 150 people each.

The holes to install the equipment were cut in Phase 1 and can be seen already on the Quinsam. The equipment will be installed as part of Phase 2.

Sarah Cotton, Manager for Sales and Community Relations, outlined where the BC Ferries community support will be this year on the Quinsam, with passage for performers for the Concert on the Green, the Gabriola Theatre Festival, Much Ado about Theatre, and the Foster Parent Support Services Society being provided.

The ferry survey was also discussed.

FAC Chair André Lemieux said, “As of June 5th, they are still receiving some of the surveys.”

A survey was sent to every fourth resident in the phone book: a total of 548. By June 8th, 271 had been returned and it was discovered 42 were sent to bad addresses. Five percent of those who were to be sent the survey’s did not receive them, and so when contacted were re-sent the survey. All surveys are expected to be returned by the end of June. The initial report is expected to be given to the FAC by mid-July.

Results will be made public through the local newspapers, according to André.

BC Ferries put $5,000 as a donation to the survey, with VIU offering to do the survey as a community service.

Asked why the survey included questions about people’s opinions on a bridge, both André and Rob said their belief was that, rather than excluding a bridge in a survey on transportation issues, they felt it was more democratic to allow the public to state its opinion on the issue.

André said, “One question is on the bridge. This is a service to the community looking at the optimum for transportation. It asks the question from many angles -- what do people really want?”

Rob said, “We were asked by the community so shouldn’t we ask the question?

“It is worth looking at alternatives.

“The question doesn’t mean that even if everyone is 100 percent in favour of a bridge that we’ll start building tomorrow.”

Rob explained Gabriola was chosen because of the relative (he stressed relative) ease of putting a bridge to Gabriola from Vancouver Island, pointing out that the cost of running ships will only increase, and fares can only increase to continue to support that.

“This one island, of all the islands we serve, it’s probably doable. The other islands you’re into engineering that could work, but would cost.

“The cost of building a bridge starts with going out, spending several hundred thousand dollars on the engineering study. If you went out, spent that, came back and said it’s doable and everyone said we don’t want one, you just wasted several hundred thousand dollars, so we want to ask the question first.”

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