Relief for frustrated passengers as ferry returns to Southern Gulf Islands routes

After a month of disruptions and lengthy reservation calls for passengers, BC Ferries is hoping the return of one of its regular Southern Gulf Island vessels will get service back to normal.

Last month the Queen of Cumberland was taken out of service after a crane broke during a safety drill, dropping two crew members into the water.

While the vessel only works the Swartz Bay route to the Southern Gulf Islands, the breakdown led to a month of service disruptions on other routes, as ferries were moved around to fill in.

That led to a surge in calls from passengers looking to book walk-on reservations — with some customers complaining about being put on hold for up to an hour.

"Having the Queen of Cumberland out of service has driven calls up by about 20 per cent," said BC Ferries spokesperson Deborah Marshall.

33-minute average call wait

Despite adding 50 extra staff to the call centre, which was handling more than 2,000 calls a day, average wait times hit 33 minutes, Marshall said.

The ferry service added a special apology from CEO Mark Collins to the automated greeting for the reservation line.

"Please accept my personal apologies for the service interruptions," the recording said. "I know the past two weeks have been very challenging to you."

In an attempt to reduce calls, Collins asked customers to use the BC Ferries website to get updated information and make vehicle reservations.

However, walk-on reservations — which are only available for Southern Gulf Islands routes and some northern routes — can only be made by phone.

'Upgrading our website'

When asked why there were no online reservations for foot passengers, Marshall said, "We are in the process of upgrading our website."

The return of the Queen of Cumberland, which re-entered service Friday morning, should make for fewer frustrated passengers, said Marshall.

"Thankfully that vessel is back in service today, right in time for the long weekend, and that should start to reduce our wait times on our call centre."

While reservations for vehicles are fully booked on Friday, Marshall says foot passengers should still get on without a reservation.

"We would recommend reservations for our passengers. They are not necessary though. It is rare that we hit our passenger licence for our foot passengers."