164 ferry sailings added between Metro Vancouver and Vancouver Island over the holidays
BC Ferries is greatly increasing its capacity for the major routes between Metro Vancouver and Vancouver Island over the 2023 holiday period.
A total of 146 sailings will be added from December 21, 2023, to January 1, 2024, including 112 more sailings between Tsawwassen and Swartz Bay and 34 more sailings between Horseshoe Bay and Departure Bay.
Additionally, BC Ferries is adding six more sailings between Horseshoe Bay and Langdale (Sunshine Coast) over the same period.
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As of today, 62% of the bookable space on these BC Ferries routes is now reserved.
BC Ferries states the most popular travel days over the holiday period are December 23 for traffic to Vancouver Island and December 26 and 27 for return traffic to Metro Vancouver. As there is typically low demand on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, some sailing schedules are reduced on some routes.
In 2022, 911,000 passengers and 428,000 vehicles travelled on BC Ferries over the holiday period. BC Ferries states it will have the capacity to move similar numbers this holiday season.
Alternatively, BC’s newest private ferry service, Hullo Ferries, is also boosting its services on its route between downtown Vancouver and the Nanaimo Port Authority near downtown Nanaimo. They have added 18 additional sailings between December 21 and December 28, 2023. Each sailing on the high-speed passenger ferry carries an end-to-end travel time of about 70 minutes.
As of early December, Hullo Ferries reached the milestone of recording its first 100,000 passengers. It first launched in the middle of August.
Earlier this fall, Hullo Ferries launched a free shuttle bus linking their terminal at the Port of Nanaimo facility with key destinations in downtown Nanaimo.
Between BC Ferries and Hullo Ferries, 164 sailings have been added for their various routes linking Metro Vancouver and Vancouver Island.
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