Hundreds of people have been sailing between Queensborough and the Quay each weekend on the Q2Q ferry.
Since more than 3,600 trips were taken on the ferry’s inaugural run on the B.C. Day long weekend, residents have been making 300 to 400 trips on Friday evenings in August and 800 to 1,000 trips on Saturdays, Sundays and holiday Mondays. The 40-passenger ferry service will continue to be offered on Saturdays, Sundays and holiday Mondays in September.
Last fall, the city decided to explore the idea of offering a ferry service between the Queensborough and Quayside neighbourhoods, after determining the cost of building a pedestrian/cyclist overpass between the two neighbourhoods would cost $39.1 million and be too costly to build. The city included $500,000 in this year’s budget to operate a limited pilot program on weekends.
A staff report states that the Q2Q ferry isn’t intended to be a full-trial service, as it’s only operating on weekends for two months and doesn’t support commuters.
“It has exposed the public to a ferry connection between Queensborough and the Quayside/downtown neighbourhoods and provided the city with necessary terminal infrastructure and experience in operating a ferry service,” said the report. “The service is also supporting tourism in the peak summer period, and customer surveys during the demonstration period will be used to determine the demand for the expansion of service in the future.”
The staff report notes that initial feedback indicates there’s been a “noticeable increase” in the number of Queensborough residents patronizing businesses in the downtown and at the Quay, and a “significant number” of passengers discovering Queensborough’s recreational and commercial amenities.
According to the city, the vast majority of respondents have been “highly enthusiastic” about the service and want it to continue, but some concerns have been raised about the lack of integration with TransLink’s Compass card system, noise and emissions from the ferry and the lack of full accessibility on the Q2Q ramps, docks and ferry.
“Work has now begun to identify measures to support accessibility should the service be extended,” said a staff report to council.
Once the trial period has ended, city staff will compile and analyze passenger feedback and report to council on future ferry service options in October.
