Travellers could find themselves whisked from downtown to Vancouver to Bowen Island and the Sunshine Coast within two years, under a new proposal for an electric ferry line.
The proposed Greenline ferry service, announced on Friday, would carry foot passengers from the Harbour Green dock in Coal Harbour to Bowen in 40 minutes and to the Sunshine Coast in 70 minutes.
“We see there is a need. It is necessary to bring new modes of transportation… for efficiency, resiliency,” said Greenline founder and CEO Callum Campbell.
“If Vancouver wants to compete in the world, we need to connect to our coastal communities much better.”
Campbell said the company has already sourced the estimated $60 million in financing required to purchase two electric passenger ferries and the three charging stations the service would require.
Now the service needs the green light from the City of Vancouver and the Vancouver Park Board, which operates the Harbour Green Dock.
Vancouver city councillor Rebecca Bligh was bullish on the project, which she said would carry about 1,000 passengers a day, eliminating 500 car trips and slashing the carbon emissions equivalent to about eight-million kilometres of driving per year.
The numbers reflect the growing integration of the South Coast region, Bligh said.
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“In recent years Bowen Island and the Sunshine Coast have welcomed many new residents driven by the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of hybrid work,” she continued.
“Many continue to make regular visits to Vancouver, to work, to visit friends and family or just to visit.”
Hosting the Vancouver terminus at the Harbour Green Dock will generate an estimated $1 million in annual revenue for the park board, a benefit in line with the city’s current drive to expand its non-tax revenue sources.
Park commissioner Brennan Bastyovanszky said the dock in its current form is already insufficient to serve leisure needs and would need to be upgraded to host the ferry.
Working out the scope of necessary upgrades is part of the work the upcoming motion to the park board would ask of staff.
“The original visitor of this waterfront always included small commuter ferries and today that vision remains more relevant than ever,” Bastyovanszky added.
“(The) park board is taking an active role in exploring how this public asset can support sustainable low-carbon transportation while maintaining its recreational value.”
The mayors of both Bowen Island and Gibsons are backing the project, which they say would be a boon to both locals and to visitors.
Bowen Mayor Andrew Leonard pointed to the multi-day ferry service outage that hit his community this week as an example of the need to diversify options.
“Ferry service is our connection to work, our connection to health care, our connection to schools and everything in between,” Leonard said.
“Investment in new marine connections to Bowen Island and the Sunshine Coast is long overdue.”
Gibsons Mayor Silas White, meanwhile, acknowledged there was still work to be done to improve transportation options on the Sunshine Coast for the car-free passengers the service would deliver.
“We’re working on it,” he said. “Working up to 2027, this is where we can really engage the province in some help as well to improve BC Transit services.”
The proposal for the new ferry service comes 18 months after the launch of the Hullo ferry, which appears to have found a profitable business model carrying foot passengers between downtown Vancouver and Nanaimo.
Greenline says each ferry would have a capacity of up to 150 passengers, but its modelling assumes about 75 boardings per trip.
The company says it is working with First Nations and all three levels of government and believes that with all necessary approvals, the ferries could be running within two years.
Ferry-related motions are headed to both Vancouver city council and the Vancouver Park Board later this month.
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