BC Ferries News Release ~ April 1 Tariff Adjustment

BC Ferries announced their April 1st fare adjustments yesterday...please see the highlights below as supplied by Darin Guenette of BC Ferries

1.   Vehicle and Passenger Tariffs – Routes 1,2,30

•        +1.9% all vehicles fares, 

•        no increase to passenger fares

2.   Vehicle and Passenger Tariffs – all other routes, (including Route 20 Chemainus-Thetis-Penelakut)

·        No increase to passenger and vehicle fares (including commercial vehicles…).

3.   Reservation fees (Routes 1,2,3,30 &17)

·        Reservations made 7 or more days from travel date - reduced to $10.00 (from $15)

·        Reservations made 1-6 days prior to travel - reduced to $17.00 (from $18.50)

·        Day of departure reservation - reduced to $21 (from $22)

4.   Reservation change fees (Routes 1,2,3,30 &17)

·        Reduced from $9 to $5, in order to encourage customers to change their reservations rather than leave them unused       

5.   Freezing over-length rate for private vehicles

•        No increase for ‘greater than 20ft’ per foot rate.

6.      New  extra wide pricing band for Vehicles >= 13ft wide on routes 1,2 & 30 only

•        100% increase per additional ft  ($13.24)

7.    Increase to Assured Loading booklets

•        +$10 per trip

•        Book of 10 $1450 to $1550

8.   Reduced Group Pax requirement to 10 

•        previously a group needed to be 16 or more people in the same vehicle in order to receive a group discount

9.   Proceed with increasing Northern cancellation rates

•        Doubling of current cancellation rates; Route 10/10S were $30, Route 11 was $15; will now be $60/$30 respectively.

•        Result of previous analysis and FAC discussion, as a way to discourage ‘frivolous reservations’ being made.

Note: that although BC Ferries had forecast a need to increase all fares for the entire Performance Term, and the Commissioner approved a max of 1.9% increase, we determined that we did not need to increase most fare categories for the upcoming fiscal year.

Keith Rush Co-Chair 

Route 20 FAC