It's tough to watch the management at BC Ferries twisting and turning trying to make their operation profitable when it's an impossible task. Underlying all of this is the fact that the province refuses to fund ferries with the same model they fund highways, despite both being equally important parts of the provincial transport network. I can't see us ever getting to free coastal ferries, but it's equally unreasonable to expect that the coastal ferries can fund themselves through fares alone given BC's geography and our population base. Too many tiny communities spread too far apart. Private enterprise would already be in place if there was money to be made, and it's telling that the couple of examples of private operation that are working service direct city centre to city centre (ie, Seattle-Victoria Clipper, harbour-to-harbour floatplanes) - that doesn't bode well for BCF's idea to switch Departure Bay-Horseshoe Bay to less centralised Duke Pt-Tsawassen. People clearly want convenience, hence the immediate resistance to this new proposed change. Seems to me this is counter to the strategy that maximises revenue from the 'gravy runs' to the southern VI population centres in order to support the money-losing runs elsewhere. Surely they should be upping service and volumes on the busy runs, cutting Departure-Horseshoe isn't the way to do that. But what do you expect when the govt forces bureaucrats to try to be business people? "OK, Jack, here's what we'll do - increase prices, reduce service, and trade our way out of trouble. Easy!" Look how well that's working at Canada Post....
