Re: Party floats idea of bridge and terminal, March 28.
The recent short crossing ferry proposal doesn’t go far enough. A much better plan would be to close three ferry routes; the Duke Point, Departure Bay and the Gabriola Island ferry. Replace those runs with a new short link crossing from Iona Island near the Vancouver Airport to Gabriola Island and connect it by road and bridge to Cedar via Mudge Island.
This would create a crossing of under 50 minutes and replace over 130 kilometres of ferry routes with one crossing of under 30km. It would also result in huge cost savings to B.C. Ferries with millions of litres less fuel burned annually and a huge drop in greenhouse gases. Congestion at Horseshoe Bay and traffic through Nanaimo would be greatly reduced. Foot passengers could use the Canada Line to go to the airport or to downtown.
This would allow for the waterfront walkway to be connected to Departure Bay and the terminus could be used for a marine theme park. The Duke Point terminal could be transferred to the port authority. The downtown Gabriola ferry terminus could be used for foot passenger traffic to Gabriola and for the proposed Vancouver passenger ferry terminus.
With the cost savings to B.C. Ferries, the short link route should result in lower fares and would allow Island residents to attend evening events in Vancouver and return home the same night. The ferries could be run on a 30-minute-or-less schedule, 24 hours a day if traffic such as truck traffic warrants it. Long waits at ferry terminals would be a thing of the past.
Jim Newman
Nanaimo