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BC Ferries changes timing of extra Easter sailings

With the Queen of Surrey still out of service following a March 26 accident at Langdale, BC Ferries has been re-jigging the Route 3 schedule. The company posted a new schedule for the Langdale-Horseshoe Bay route on April 5.
Cowichan
The Queen of Cowichan is one of the ferries serving the Langdale route while the Queen of Surrey is in for repairs

With the Queen of Surrey still out of service following a March 26 accident at Langdale, BC Ferries has been re-jigging the Route 3 schedule.

The company posted a new schedule for the Langdale-Horseshoe Bay route on April 5. It includes eight extra sailings for the run, but at different times than originally posted when new schedules took effect across the system at the beginning of the month.

“We’ve made adjustments to the Langdale schedule for the Easter long weekend to ensure that route, as well as the Departure Bay route, still have extra sailings to carry the holiday traffic we anticipate,” Deborah Marshall of BC Ferries told Coast Reporter in an email.

Eleven extra sailings are planned between Horseshoe Bay and Nanaimo, and 70 will be added on the heavily travelled Tsawwassen – Swartz Bay route.

Ferries is also apologizing for a mistake on the original version of the April 1 – May 15 Route 3 schedule posted on the website.  That schedule showed extra sailings on Fridays and Saturdays starting after the Easter weekend, which were not actually part of BC Ferries’ plan.  The correct schedule was posted as soon as the error was noticed.

The shoulder season schedule, which does offer some extra sailings, will begin May 16.

BC Ferries said this week that it’s still not certain if the Queen of Surrey will be back on the route by then.

Marshall said repairs are going well, but engineers have not yet determined a date when the ship will return to service.