Ferry Advisory Committee Action Minutes

Transcription

1 Ferry Advisory Committee Action Minutes Southern Gulf Islands Ferry Advisory Committee Date: October 29, 2010 Time: 9:30 a.m. Location: Mary Winspear Centre, Sidney Attendees: FAC Committee Brian Hollingshead Dave Dryer Nancy Gerber Ken Hancock Susan Jamieson-McLarnon Jill Justice Elma Maund Bill Noble Conny Nordin Melody Pender Barry Wilks Absent Don Berkeley Jim Deverill Terry Halverson Sue Syverson BC Ferries Rob Clarke, Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer Mark Stefanson, Vice President, Public Affairs Captain Chris Frappell, Marine Superintendent, Southern Islands Paul McDaniel, Regional Director, Terminal Operations, South Steve Anderson, Manager, Fleet Deployment and Scheduling Daryl Walker, Terminal Manager, South Gulf Islands Nicole Wright, Terminal Manager, South Gulf Islands Rosa Marinelli, Manager, Marketing & Travel Services Darin Guenette, Manager, Public Affairs Others Harold Swierenga, Chair, Salt Spring Island FAC Four members of the public 1. Call to Order and introductions: 9:30 a.m. 2. Approval of Agenda: The agenda was approved as drafted. 3. Correspondence: Brian Hollingshead read s from Pender Island residents, summarizing that there is a South Gulf Island-wide feeling of service hardship, particularly associated with the Bowen Queen replacing the Queen of Cumberland. He handed printed copies of these s, along with several letters, to Darin Guenette for distribution as appropriate. 4. Presentations: a. Public none. b. Opening remarks and financial report Rob Clarke gave a summary of the recent decision, by the Federal Government, to return duties previously charged during the procurement of the Northern Expedition and Coastal Class vessels. Included in this explanation was that the remitted duties were applied towards lowering fares and that the impact of this reduction will remain through to the end of Performance Term Two. Barry Wilks asked if remitted funds could be used for minor vessel acquisitions. Rob Clarke replied that the funds could not be used for purchases due to accounting rules. Following this, Rob Clarke explained the process of BC Ferries recent Performance Term Three (PT3) submission to the Ferry Commissioner (including one amendment to include the effect of Southern Gulf Islands FAC Action Minutes Page 1 of 5

2 the duty remission decision). He also told the committee about a related report, titled Opportunities for Enhanced Efficiencies in Performance Term Three (Efficiencies Report), and that the Commissioner has decided to publish both reports on his website. Rob outlined that the Efficiencies Report is a document where BC Ferries outlines opportunities for potential costsaving considerations, and that it makes no recommendations or plans. Rather, this report is meant to stimulate discussions of ideas that may increase service efficiencies and/or reduce costs; thus, helping reduce the effect of near-future, potentially significant fare increases. Dave Dryer asked if an estimate could be provided on fare increases if/when the Queen of Nanaimo is replaced. Rob Clarke responded that an estimate was difficult, but fare increase would be significant ; noting that these fare increases would be spread across the entire route group, not just applied to Route 9. Rob Clarke then reviewed a financial statement detailing revenues, expenses and earnings for Routes 5/5a and 9/9a. c. Operations Report Captain Frappell reviewed traffic data, on-time performance (OTP) figures, service issues and capital plans pertaining to Routes 5/5a and 9/9a. The action item from the most recent FAC meeting was discussed. Brian Hollingshead explained that the FAC has requested a new Route 9 fare differential estimate. Rob Clarke explained that, until the vacancy created by Grant Bierlmeier s resignation is filled, dealing with this request is on hold. Jill Justice asked why funds going towards Queen of Cumberland s current comfort improvements could not be used elsewhere. Rob Clarke explained that capital investment had been neglected in the past, and the current version of BC Ferries will not sacrifice vessel maintenance and updates. He also noted that doing this work now would take pressure off the project schedule for the upcoming 1/4 life upgrade. Captain Frappell outlined that vessel work includes catering facilities upgrades, washroom upgrades and new seating. ACTION: Captain Frappell to forward general layout/rendering for Queen of Cumberland once refit is complete, to the FAC. COMPLETED. 5. Agenda Items: a. BC Ferries recommendations to alleviate overloads Brian Hollingshead asked if, in light of reduced capacity available with Bowen Queen relieving the Queen of Cumberland, BC Ferries has any other ideas to help alleviate the occurrence of overloads, and Captain Frappell said no. Discussion occurred around ideas such as reservations on Route 5 and swapping Skeena Queen with the Route 5 vessel (Dave Dryer), extension of free seniors travel on Thursdays (Barry Wilks) and having the Cumberland make extra stops at Otter Bay Terminal (group). Various BC Ferries members explained constraints/roadblocks around implementing these ideas currently. Brian Hollingshead requested near-future analysis be done to swap the Cumberland and Mayne Queen for the weekday, mid-morning sailings from Swartz Bay. ACTION: Captain Frappell agreed to further analyze swapping Queen of Cumberland and Mayne Queen for the mid-morning Swartz Bay departures. b. Second look at overheight-overlength fare rationalization Brian Hollingshead explained that at the most recent FAC Chairs meeting, the question was raised about whether fares charged to overlength vehicles may be unfair. He enquired if members of this FAC receive many complaints on overlength charges. Other FAC members expressed a view that there were relatively few complaints regarding the current overlength fares, and that removal of overheight charges was very well received. Rob Clarke said that BC Ferries gets fewer complaints about overlength fares than used to come about overheight fares. Southern Gulf Islands FAC Action Minutes Page 2 of 5

3 c. Mayne Queen 9:10 sailing As the departure of the Mayne Queen has been moved from 9 am to 9:10 am, Brian Hollingshead asked if this 10 minutes could be recovered prior to this sailing returning to Swartz Bay, thus returning at the original arrival time. Steve Anderson explained that recovering these 10 minutes was not possible because the schedule is already very tight and increasing speed to the extent required would be very costly in fuel usage. d. Future of fuel rebates Rob Clarke explained that the current fuel rebate is probably reducing in the near future, and may be eliminated completely. e. FAC meeting schedule Brian Hollingshead asked the other FAC members for comments on the previously proposed change to go to one face-to-face meeting and one conference call each year. Some members felt that two face-to-face meetings are very important and others saw value in trying one conference call. In general, it was agreed to give a conference call meeting a try. f. Route 9 year-round fare analysis Rob Clarke stated that, although there was an outstanding request for BC Ferries to consider analyzing Route 9 fares, there is currently no BCF employee able to conduct fare analysis of any sort. g. Mayne Queen 2:50 departure (Sw.Bay) OTP analysis Brian Hollingshead asked if on-time performance for the Mayne Queen s 2:50 pm departure from Swartz Bay has improved since this sailing has been changed from a 3 pm departure. Steve Anderson noted that this schedule change was made to help improve the entire network of South Gulf Island sailings. Specifically, Steve noted that Mayne Queen s OTP has not really changed, but that Queen of Nanaimo (Route 9) has increased from 64% to 79% OTP; thus, the Mayne Queen has not seen much change, but the overall network appears to be improving noticeably. Captain Frappell added that the Masters of all vessels involved in this network have noted that the afternoon vessel interchange at Village Bay is much better and that the evening interchange is not yet improving, and will continue to be monitored. h. Confirmation of commercial fare freeze Brian Hollingshead enquired if the commercial fare freeze will continue past April 1, 2011, and if so, what might be associated cost. Rob Clarke said that BC Ferries is prepared to continue the freeze, but need to further review cost figures. ACTION: Rob Clarke will forward reliable estimates of anticipated costs of maintaining commercial fare freeze to FAC. i. Printed schedule plan Mark Stefanson reiterated the reasons for BC Ferries move to cease printing of the all routes schedule. He added that based on feedback received at the previous round of FAC meetings, the plan is to make PDF versions of all routes combined and individual routes separately. Each customer would be able to download and print these schedules at their leisure, or could seek out printed versions at terminals and onboard vessels. Some general feedback on issues related to the printed schedules was given. Rosa Marinelli said that Marketing can look at producing a text version, for help in clarifying understanding of the complexity of Routes 5 and 9. Both Conny Nordin and Dave Dryer noted that tourism business owners will now be responsible for printing schedules for customers, thus incurring extra printing costs, and Rob Clarke replied that BC Ferries will research ways to make multiple copies available. Brian Hollingshead agrees it is a good idea to have racked copies of Routes 5 and 9 available at terminals and/or on vessels. Bill Noble expressed that he feels it is critical to communication the implementation of new, PDF schedules, including informing of terminal/vessel staff and a reliable phone Southern Gulf Islands FAC Action Minutes Page 3 of 5

4 number to call with questions. Rosa said that early May 2011 is the target implementation, providing two months trial until the current printed schedule expires. She added that BC Ferries understands that many customers may not have computer/internet access readily available, and will keep this in mind when rolling out the new plan. j. Queen of Nanaimo replacement Brian Hollingshead asked what the plans are for replacing the Queen of Nanaimo. Rob Clarke said that there are currently no plans, as it is too early in the analysis process. He added that there has been no indication given to BC Ferries, by the Provincial Government, on what type of vessel(s) should be considered either. k. Queen of Cumberland remaining on Rte 5? Brian Hollingshead asked if the plan is to keep the Queen of Cumberland on Route 5 indefinitely. Rob Clarke responded that there is no current plan to move Cumberland, but that the vessel review and network optimization process considers everything (refits, upgrades, replacement, etc). Brian summarized by stating that South Gulf Islanders all express that the Cumberland is a bad fit on Route 5/5a and is getting worse so, FAC would like to see BC Ferries seriously consider that the Cumberland is inadequate for these routes, due to the lack of speed capability required to effectively traverse Active Pass and encumbrance of ramp deployment procedures when trying to serve multiple ports. l. Southern Gulf Island specific issues Reports from team leaders for each island represented within the FAC: - Pender: Dave Dryer and Jill Justice relayed idea for home-porting Queen of Nanaimo at Swartz Bay and Queen of Cumberland at Long Harbour. Rob Clarke agreed that this type of idea is exactly what BC Ferries wants to hear and consider. - Mayne: Barry Wilks expressed that Mayne Islanders also have a similar idea for reconfiguring ferries, primarily involving a Saturna-Mayne link. He added that they are very keen to participate in a meaningful discussion to share such ideas with BC Ferries representatives. - Galiano: Bill Noble suggested that if there is known space on the 2:50 pm Swartz Bay departure, then Galiano-bound traffic may be allowed onboard. Capt Frappell and Steve Anderson agreed that this idea is being considered now. Bill added that more advance warning on ferry changes would be appreciated, as this would allow more time to spread the word around the island. - Saturna: Nancy Gerber said that the single, biggest complaint on Saturna is the recent loss of 20 minutes on Vancouver Island, with schedule adjustments that have recently occurred. m. Process to ensure urgent travelers remain on lower deck of Cumberland Brian Hollingshead forwarded a letter asking for a process to be developed that allows urgent travelers to remain on Queen of Cumberland s lower deck, thus expediting unloading at Swartz Bay. Captain Frappell said that there are many factors at play to set up such a process that would surely see less/no cars loaded on the ramps, which reduces capacity and is unacceptable. Added to the difficultly would be the potential for unreasonable pressure put on terminal attendants to make a discretionary decision on whom is to be loaded up the ramps. 6. New Business: a. Printed ferries schedule update covered during agenda item 5.j. discussion. Southern Gulf Islands FAC Action Minutes Page 4 of 5

5 7. Next meeting: Conference call to be held in Spring Approved: Capt. Chris Frappell, Marine Sup t Date: December 2, 2010 Brian Hollingshead, Chair Date: December 29, 2010 Southern Gulf Islands FAC Action Minutes Page 5 of 5