Hullo Ferries adds more regular daily sailings, plus concert and Canucks trips

Hullo Ferries (left) and Coldplay's Chris Martin (right). (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive | Shutterstock)

Hullo Ferries has indicated that since its launch a month ago, on August 16, it has seen a total ridership of over 23,000 passengers between downtown Vancouver and downtown Nanaimo on its high-speed passenger ferry service.

Building on the strong ridership to date, expect even more regular sailings on Hullo Ferries on a daily basis throughout October, along with special late-night sailings for major concerts and sports events in downtown Vancouver.

The ferry company announced today it will grow its regular October schedule to four roundtrips (eight sailings) per day. For the journey from Nanaimo to Vancouver, this entails sailings at 7 am, 11 am, 3:30 pm, and 7:30 pm. For the return journey from Vancouver to Nanaimo, there will be sailings at 9 am, 1 pm, 5:30 pm, and 9:30 pm.

This is up from the current regular daily schedule of three roundtrips (six sailings) per day throughout September, which is also up from two roundtrips (four sailings) per day over the last two weeks of August.

Each sailing carries an end-to-end travel time of about 75 minutes.

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The 9:30 pm sailing from Vancouver to Nanaimo will be shifted later into the evening on select nights for the special event sailing service, enabling Vancouver Island residents to enjoy major events held in downtown Vancouver.

There will be a total of 10 late-night special event sailings later in September and October.

For select Vancouver Canucks games at Rogers Arena, the last return sailing of the day from Vancouver to Nanaimo will depart at 10:30 pm. This includes:

Edmonton Oilers @ Canucks on October 11
New York Rangers @ Canucks on October 28
Nashville Predators @ Canucks on October 31

For select concerts, the last return sailing will depart Vancouver at 11:30 pm. This includes:

Coldplay at BC Place Stadium on September 22 and 23
Morgan Wallen at Rogers Arena on October 3 and 4
Guns N’ Roses at BC Place Stadium on October 16
Pink at Rogers Arena on October 20 and 21

Passengers will return to Nanaimo at 11:45 pm for Canucks games and at 12:45 am for concerts.

The company’s downtown Vancouver ferry terminal at the Coal Harbour seaplane terminal is located a short walking distance from Waterfront Station. Concertgoers can take SkyTrain Expo Line from Stadium-Science World Station to quickly reach Waterfront Station, and then walk towards the convention centre.

This comes after Hullo Ferries’ success with providing a special late night event sailing for this past Monday’s Beyonce concert at BC Place Stadium. It should also be acknowledged that because Beyonce started her concert late, Hullo Ferries delayed its scheduled sailing time by 30 minutes from 11:30 pm to midnight, allowing concertgoers to enjoy more of the performance.

“We’ve had so much demand for late-night sailings, as people from Vancouver Island are looking for an easier and more affordable way to enjoy evening concerts and games in Vancouver,” said Hullo Ferries CEO Alastair Caddick in a statement.

“After attending events on the mainland, people can now safely travel back home and enjoy the comfort of their own bed.”

BC Ferries’ routes from Horseshoe Bay and Tsawwassen are usually not suitable for event attendees, given that their services reaching Nanaimo do not run late, and there is a relatively long travel time on the road to reach their distant Metro Vancouver terminals. Vancouver Island residents are typically known to otherwise leave an event early or book a hotel for an overnight stay.

Each of Hullo Ferries’ two vessels carry a capacity of 350 seated passengers, with the ships travelling at speeds of up to 40 knots (74 km/hr) in open water.

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