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