BC Ferries to order 11 new ships over the coming years

Nov 25 2022, 4:39 am

The forthcoming 12 years will be a period of further transformation for the BC Ferries fleet, with the ferry corporation set to order a total of 11 new vessels, including four small ships and seven large ships.

On Thursday, the procurement process began for ordering four Island Class ships, which are a new small class of vessel designed for minor routes.

This would grow BC Ferries’ fleet of Island Class vessels to a total of 10 from the existing fleet of six, which arrived between 2020 and 2021.

The four new Island Class vessels will be used to improve capacity on inter-island routes, including two ships on the Crofton-Salt Spring Island route, one ship on the Quadra Island-Cortes Island route, and one ship as a spare vessel and to support future growth.

Island Class vessels are diesel-electric hybrid ships, and they can be fully converted into battery-electric ships in the future when funding is made available, including the funding needed to install shore charging equipment. Each Island Class vessel has the capacity to carry at least 47 vehicles and up to 400 passengers and crew.

bc ferries island class ships january 2020 victoria hybrid electric

BC Ferries’ first new Island Class hybrid-electric vessels arrived in Victoria on January 18, 2020. (BC Ferries)

bc ferries island class damen shipyards poland

BC Ferries’ sixth Island Class vessel launched into water on April 21, 2021 at the Damen Shipyards in Poland. (BC Ferries)

In an email to Daily Hive Urbanized on Thursday, Deborah Marshall, a spokesperson for BC Ferries, said the bidding process to build the new ships is open to local, national, and international companies, which is the ferry corporation’s usual practice.

However, historically, domestic shipyards rarely bid on BC Ferries for reasons such as a lack of capacity or a preoccupation with other shipbuilding contracts.

As for the remaining seven vessels within the 12-year capital plan, they will all be large ships, which will replace six aging ships and provide one additional vessel to support growth and improve resiliency. Marshall says the first of these new large ships will enter service in 2029.

These large ships are intended to be used on the major routes between Metro Vancouver and Vancouver Island. They will be BC Ferries’ largest vessel orders since the introduction of the three Coastal-class ferries in 2007 and 2008.

bc ferries queen of surrey c class horseshoe bay terminal

Queen of Surrey, a C-class vessel, at BC Ferries’ Horseshoe Bay terminal. (Shutterstock)

bc ferries queen of alberni ship vessel

Queen of Alberni, a C-class vessel of BC Ferries. (Shutterstock)

This strategy of ordering about a dozen new small and large ships has been in the works for years, but it was amongst the capital investments delayed due to the pandemic. Over the years, the future vessel allocation numbers have changed.

In 2018, BC Ferries first indicated it was looking to replace all five C-class ferries — built between the late 1970s and early 1980s — with five new large ships or one-for-one replacements. At the time, it was anticipated the first new C-class replacement vessel would arrive in 2024. This strategy entails retiring vessels such as the Queen of Alberni, Queen of Coquitlam, Queen of Cowichan, Queen of Oak Bay, and Queen of Surrey — all of which are sister vessels designed with the same length of 138 metres, but offer varying capacities of between 1,200 and 1,494 passengers and crew and about 300 vehicles.

Then in 2021, the ferry corporation revealed its intention to order seven additional Island Class vessels — beyond the initial six already ordered. At the time, they were seeking funding from the federal and provincial governments to enable the possibility of building the vessels at a Canadian shipyard, given the cost premium of domestic shipyards.

There is a cost premium to building the ferries in Canada, as shipyards in the country do not have the same economies of scale as the larger and active European shipyards. The Romanian shipyard facilities of Dutch company Damen Group are behind the construction of the first six Island Class vessels.

BC Ferries previously estimated it would cost $1.04 billion to build seven additional Island Class ships in Canada.

For the scenario of converting the six existing Island Class vessels into 100% battery-electric ships and modifying nine terminal facilities with shore charging equipment, it would cost an additional $150 million.

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