or '''BC Ferries''' is a company that provides all major passenger and vehicle
Ferry services on the West Coast of
British Columbia . Set up in 1960 to provide a substantially better service then those provided by the
Black Ball Line and the
Canadian Pacific Railway , which were affected by frequent spurts of job action, BC Ferries has become the largest passenger ferry line in North America and the second largest in the world, boasting a fleet of 35 vessels with a total passenger and crew capacity of over 27,000, serving 48 locations on the B.C. coast.
In the late 1950s, a
Strike caused the
Social Credit government of
W.A.C. Bennett to decide that the coastal ferry service in B.C. needed to be government-owned, and so he set about creating BC Ferries.
BC Ferries' first route, commissioned in 1960, was between which has been retired. The next few years saw a dramatic growth of the B.C. ferry system, as it took over operations of the Black Ball Line and other major private companies providing vehicle ferry service between
Vancouver Island and the
Lower Mainland . As the ferry system expanded and started to service other small coastal communities, BC Ferries had to build more vessels, many of them in the first five years of its operations, to keep up with the demand. Another method of satisfying increasing demand for service was BC Ferries' unique "stretch and lift" program, involving seven vessels being cut in half and extended, and five of those vessels later cut in half again and elevated, to increase their passenger and vehicle-carrying capacities. The vast majority of the vessels in the fleet were built in B.C. waters, with only two foreign purchases and one domestic purchase. In the mid 1980s, BC Ferries took over the operations of the saltwater branch of the B.C. Ministry of Transportation and Highways, which ran ferry services to very small coastal communities. This action dramatically increased the size of BC Ferries' fleet and its geographical service area. The distinctive 'dogwood on green' flag that BC Ferries used between 1960 and 2003 gave the service its popular nickname "the Dogwood Fleet".
In 2003, the Government of , which operates under the rules of the Act. Critics have said that the company, however reorganized, will continue to be subject to political interference, despite the Government's assurances to the contrary. More information about the various aspects of this change to the company is available
here .
A controversy began in July, 2004 when BC Ferries, under a new American CEO, announced that the company had disqualified all Canadian bids and only the proposals from European
Shipyard s to build three new
Super-C Class ships were being considered. The contract is estimated at less than $500 million for the three ships, which are each designed to carry 370 vehicles and 1600 passengers.
The argument for domestic construction of the ferries is that it would employ numerous British Columbia workers, would revitalize the sagging B.C. shipbuilding industry, and entitle the provincial government to a large portion of the cost in the form of taxes. However, European shipbuilders had far more experience and shipyards that were more capable of constructing the ships at a significantly lower cost, and contract terms with European shipyards could be negotiated that were superior to what was likely to be available from B.C. shipbuilders.
On 's
Flensburger shipyard . The contract protects BC Ferries from any delays through a fixed price and fixed schedule contract, and the performance of the ferries is guaranteed with strong contractual requirements. The three vessels are expected to be delivered in 2007 and 2008.
Route numbers are used internally by BC Ferries. All routes allow vehicles unless stated otherwise.
