BC Ferries announces 12 per cent rate hike

CTV BC: BC Ferries raising rates BC Ferries’ prices are going up by 12 per cent over the next three years, the British Columbia Ferry Commission announced Monday.

BC Ferries’ prices are going up by 12 per cent over the next three years, the British Columbia Ferry Commission announced Monday.

Rates will increase by around four per cent per year until 2015.

The commission announced the price increases are part of a cost-reduction strategy to save $54.2 million over four years. Cuts to ferry service are expected to account for $30 million of the efficiency target.

BC Ferries plans to cut 98 underused trips from their schedules after Thanksgiving weekend and possibly more in the future.

Almost half of those cuts are on the Tsawwassen-Duke Point route on Saturdays, where sailings were running at less than 25 per cent of capacity. As of Oct. 9 they’ll be reducing the schedule to a 10-hour day operating between 7:45 a.m. to 3:15 p.m., spokeswoman Deborah Marshall announced in August.

The remainder of cuts will be to supplemental services offered when needed during busy times on the Tsawwassen-Swartz Bay and Departure Bay-Horseshoe Bay routes.

Marshall said these cuts are part of a cost-reduction strategy. The company will be receiving an $80 million increase in government funding over the next four years, and has been taxed with finding $30 million in savings within the company.