Six sailings have been added to the BC Ferries route between Langdale and Horseshoe Bay in anticipation of a busy Thanksgiving weekend.
In total, 93 extra sailings are being added between Oct. 10 and Oct. 15 to the most popular BC Ferries routes.
“Historically, the most popular travel times are Thursday and Friday afternoon, and Saturday morning for traffic moving from the Tsawwassen and Horseshoe Bay terminals to Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast. The most popular travel day of the long weekend will be Thanksgiving Monday, with traffic returning from the Departure Bay, Swartz Bay and Langdale terminals,” said a BC Ferries release.
The Vancouver-Victoria route, which is the most popular in the fleet, is getting 74 added sailings and 13 have been added to the West Vancouver-Nanaimo route.
Booking a reservation is strongly recommended and those without should be prepared to wait.
Thanksgiving weekend is also “typically the most popular travel weekend of the year for walk-on passengers,” according to the release, and some sailings could reach passenger capacity, so passengers are encouraged to arrive 45 minutes before their anticipated sailing.
Parking is also expected to be scarce and ride-sharing, public transportation and other alternative transportation is encouraged.
The transit system on the Sunshine Coast is also changing Thanksgiving weekend. The Sunday schedule will apply on Monday, Oct. 14 and the handyDART service won’t be offered that day.
BC Ferries will be flipping over to its winter schedule following Thanksgiving weekend, with reduced sailings on the Langdale-Horseshoe Bay route.
With that adjustment comes a change to the Sunshine Coast transit system. A new riders guide comes into effect Oct. 15.
That new riders guide can be found at bctransit.com.
The BC Ferries schedule for the Langdale-Horseshoe Bay route can be found at bcferries.com.
