BC Ferries statistics show that British Columbia citizens and travelers are usingBC Ferries more than ever after passenger numbers dropped significantly during the pandemic. is used for
Traffic is close to pre-pandemic levels, officials said at a press conference on Thursday.
"In the first three months [of the year], passenger and vehicle traffic increased by 74% and he 42%, respectively, compared to the same period last year," he said BC. Ferries staff said. release.
"This quarter marked a record first-quarter vehicle traffic volume."
Compared to the same period in pre-COVID fiscal 2020, vehicle traffic increased by 3.8% and passenger traffic decreased by 6.3%.
READ MORE: BC Ferries CEO Mark Collins fired due to service disruption and staffing issues
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Staffing has been a big issue for BC Ferries lately.
But the company said it was actively working on it.
The reasons given were not new pandemic-related issues, such as burnout or existing shortages of Marines. was.
"By the summer he had over 800 new hires," said Jill Sharland, interim president and chief executive officer of BC Ferries.
"This is probably the largest number of people we have ever hired, and we are working on employee evaluations and training to retain existing employees, and that will be our focus going forward."
Read more: Residents of B.C. Island worry about the lack of life-threatening emergency ferry services.
BC Ferries said it had canceled less than 1% of its scheduled round-trip trips in the first three months of this financial year due to crew shortages.
However, routes such as the Hornby Island ferry route suffer from many problems with long wait times.
"Hornby and Denman are what we call hot spots in the summer," Sharland said.
"We made adding capacity to these routes an absolute priority. In the short term, we are looking at what we can do for next summer."
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Many people from different islands attended the conference, complaining about cancellations and lack of service on some routes.
Sharland said he is exploring the idea of creating a priority reservation system for residents.
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