In a move that will surely excite thousands of travellers, BC Ferries has confirmed it is testing out allowing Interac payments on its busiest route.

The company has famously avoided permitting payment by debit on its vessels, opting instead for cash and credit cards. 

It has long maintained the reason behind the restriction is because of connectivity issues, but that all changed on Wednesday.

The company says it's conducting a two-month trial allowing Interac payments on vessels that operate on the Swartz Bay-Tsawwassen route.

Payment by debit was only available on the Spirit of British Columbia vessel Wednesday, and would be rolled out to all vessels on the route Thursday, the company said.

BC Ferries told CTV News that it thinks it has finally attained a level of WiFi connectivity that allows debit services to operate on sailings without failure. 

Debit is already accepted as a payment method for foot passengers at BC Ferries terminals. BC Ferries said it would not roll out payment by debit at its terminal booths, where drivers can only pay by credit card or cash, due to long processing times.

"Unfortunately no debit at vehicle booths. Tap & Go has a $100 transaction limit & anything over would be required to enter PIN #," the company tweeted in response to a question. "This would impact transaction process time, which would not be good for customers in line." 

The news made waves online, with some even joking that it was more historic than Canada's legalization of marijuana that took effect the same day. Others poked fun at the fact that while debit was available at virtually every business in B.C., it was only now being installed on BC Ferries.