BC Ferries has announced they will be increasing passenger capacity on the two remaining routes currently serving Vancouver and Vancouver Island.
Starting next week, some of the scheduled ‘cargo-only’ sailings on the Swartz Bay-Tsawwassen and Duke Point-Tsawwassen routes will accept all traffic — including passengers.
The Swartz Bay-Tsawwassen and Duke Point-Tsawwassen routes were originally retained due to the necessity of transporting cargo, despite a traffic decline of 80 per cent.
The Swartz Bay-Tsawwassen route will start accepting all passengers beginning May 11th, where currently one sailing each way is dedicated to cargo only.
For the Duke Point-Tsawwassen route, there are presently four daily cargo-only sailings each way, which will be reduced to two starting May 7th.
This means two of these daily sailings each way will soon open up to all traffic.
For the vessels that still operate as cargo-only sailings, the number of passengers on board is limited to only 84, and they provide priority loading to commercial vehicles transporting goods.
BC Ferries says that they allow essential service workers to load on a first-come, first-served basis after commercial vehicles on these cargo-only sailings.
If there is any space left after commercial vehicles and essential workers board, other traffic may be allowed.
The ferry company has implemented a number of health safety measures to help reduce the spread of COVID-19, including a 50 per cent reduction in vessel capacities to allow for proper physical distancing.
BC Ferries have also advised that they will be conducting necessary parking lot resurfacing work at the Swartz Bay Terminal from Monday, May 11th to Friday, May 15th which may affect vehicles entering the pick-up and drop-off areas.
There will be no change to the location of the BC Transit or Taxi staging areas.
