Early morning ferry goers don’t have to make reservations to ride the Q to Q – and they’ll be able to board the ferry earlier than ever before.
When city council recently approved an extension of the Q to Q ferry service between the Quayside and Queensborough neighbourhoods until next May, officials said reservations may be considered for early-morning rides because of cost implications.
“No reservations. We looked at it again, looked at the schedule, and found other areas where we could adjust the hours to adjust the required budget to get us through the pilot extension period,” said Lisa Leblanc, the city’s transportation manager. “It means that we will be starting later in the morning on the weekends, we will be starting earlier in the morning on the weekdays and we will be ending earlier in the evening on the weekdays. We just shifted the hours around.”
Starting Monday, Oct. 29 (today), the ferry service will run: Monday to Thursday – 6 a.m. to 9 a.m., and noon to 7 p.m.; Friday – 6 to 9 a.m., and noon to 8 p.m.; and weekends and statutory holidays – 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. The Q to Q ferry will depart from each dock approximately every 20 minutes.
The pilot ferry service, which has been running between Queensborough and the Quay since May 19, was set to end on Oct. 28. Some citizens told council that they would like to use the service, but couldn’t do so because the first ferry departed Queensborough after 7 a.m.
“They told us if it started earlier they would be much more motivated. We decided to give it a try,” Leblanc told the Record. “Today was the first morning that we started at 6. There was nobody on the boat at 6 a.m. today, but that’s OK. It’s only Day 1. We are still catching up to get all our signage updated. We will get there. People will learn, and we will see how it goes.”
Bowen Land and Sea Taxi, which will continue to operate the service until May 17, will deploy a 12-passenger water taxi capable of carrying two wheelchairs and four bicycles per trip.
Leblanc said the city is thankful to all the community members who have taken the time to comment on the ferry service.
“We received a lot of really great, really constructive comments. The first (message) is thank you. The second is, let’s give it a go,” she said. “This is a great opportunity to see how this type of service can serve people in the less-than-ideal months as well. Let’s use this as an opportunity to learn about how well it works in the dark and in the rain. What does it require for people to commit to this and to really embrace it as a reasonable option for commuting from Queensborough, in particular? I encourage everybody to take this in the spirit of a pilot project and to continue to share the feedback, and we will continue to listen to them and do what we can to adjust to see what we can do to make this work for everybody.”
The city encourages community members to fill out a short online survey, which is available until Nov. 9 at www.newwestcity.ca/qtoqferry.
“Now that we are in the less-than-ideal conditions, we wanted to hear from people about how it is working and what are the things that are on their mind now that it’s less than ideal conditions, because that helps us to figure out the hard part of the service,” Leblanc said. “We are also working with TransLink to understand what this service does that complements the regular transit service. We are interested in knowing if this is something that TransLink would be interested in working with us on.”
Leblanc said the city is also actively working on seeking sponsorship from private donors as well, to help fund a long-term service.
“Council has directed us to develop a business case for a long-term service so we are actively working on that,” Leblanc said. “What would it cost? What would be involved in getting this established as a longer term service? What would the commitments be? What would the other implications be to having this considered for a permanent service?”
According to Leblanc, more than 50,000 passenger trips were completed on the Q to Q ferry between May and October.
“The 2018 Q to Q pilot ferry service was a tremendous success and feedback from the community has been very positive,” said Mayor Jonathan Cote. “We have heard very clearly that this type of service is needed on a year-round basis to serve the needs of residents on both sides of the Fraser River.”
In addition to buying tickets onboard using exact change, people can purchase individual tickets or monthly passes at the Queensborough Community Centre, New Westminster City Hall, Centennial Community Centre and several vendors in River Market. Individual tickets are $2 for full fare and $1 for concession, and monthly passes are $40 for full fare and $20 for concession. Children aged five and under ride for free.
