Queen of Burnaby going into drydock

Wednesday, February 8, 2012 - 5:04 PM
By Marc Mulvaney
Courtenay

Bad news for Comox to Powell River ferry travellers, the Queen of Burnaby won't be back on line until late next week.

"Our engineers have determined that the problem with the Queen of Burnaby is in the propeller hub, and that means we do have to drydock the ship in order to facilitate those repairs," said BC Ferries spokesperson Deborah Marshall.

"The soonest we can get into a drydock will be Sunday, and it will take several days to repair, so we expect the ship to be out of drydock late next week, " explained Marshall, in clarifying the timelines for repairing the Queen of Burnaby.

Meanwhile Powell River Mayor Dave Formosa says BC Ferries is bending over backwards for his community. Dave Formosa says talks are underway with Pacific Coastal Airlines to offer passenger flights to Comox, for the cost of a BC Ferries passenger ticket, also two mid-day commercial sailings will be added to take the pressure off of other sailings, and a 1-800 number will be set up to handle medical emergencies.

Formosa says his community will continue to lobby for new ships to be built to handle the Powell River to Comox run.

The much smaller North Island Princess has left many ferry travellers stranded, the vessel has one-quarter the vehicle capacity of the Queen of Burnaby.

 

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