'Unacceptable': Massive BC Ferries lineups to get to Vancouver Island for the long weekend

Long weekend travellers waited hours at Tsawwassen’s terminal to get to Vancouver Island by ferry on Friday, those without a reservation waiting upwards of six hours.

Usual long weekend traffic trouble was compounded by BC Ferries being down a vessel due to repairs, so the company has only three ferries doing the Swartz Bay – Tsawwassen route. It had to drop eight sailings each day on that route through the long weekend, and add passengers with reservations on the sidelined ship to sailings on the remaining ones.

BC Ferries spokesperson Deborah Marshall said the temporary loss of the vessel is what caused the problems.

“The sailing waits we are seeing are for passengers travelling standby,” said Marshall.

Vacationers leaving Vancouver Island had an easier go of things. Departure Bay in Nanaimo was relatively quiet – with modest waits that would be expected the Friday of a long weekend.

In Swartz Bay. there were a couple sailing waits if you didn't have reservations. The real pain was felt by travellers coming from the mainland over to Vancouver Island.

BC Ferries had warned passengers they should walk on rather than drive if they didn’t have reservations and wanted to avoid long waits -- advice many leaving Vancouver Island seem to have heeded.

Still, after a separate warning last week by BC Ferries that there would be cancellations during the summer because of staffing shortages, this weekend’s woes fueled growing frustration from passengers and the province’s Transportation Minister, Rob Fleming,

“The situation right now is unacceptable,” he said Friday morning. “BC Ferries needs to provide a better more reliable service and indeed they are working on that, but that’s not going to comfort anyone this weekend.”

Traffic leaving Vancouver Island from Swartz Bay is expected to be especially bad on Monday -- when all those vacationers return home -- on a service that’s not running anywhere near full steam.