NorLinkedVille
As promised in the last post, we now return you to our regular programming.
Which is...
Old guys talking about the weather.
Sort of.
A couple of days ago, 'atoma4u', a reader over at Norm Farrell's place, mentioned that the original route for the Fast Cat ferries was a straight shot across the Salish Sea from Iona Island to Gabriola.
The entire trip would be 40 min followed by a pleasant drive to VanIsle over the connecting mudflats by bridge.
Somewhat bizarrely, from a political irony POV at least, this route, which removes the need to travel through the tunnel or over Burrard Inlet on the Lotuslandian side, was resurrected by a then headless and rust(ad)-free BC Conservative party in 2017.
Go figure!
Anyway, getting back to the matter at hand.
Old guys talking about the weather.
Sort of.
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A couple of days ago, 'atoma4u', a reader over at Norm Farrell's place, mentioned that the original route for the Fast Cat ferries was a straight shot across the Salish Sea from Iona Island to Gabriola.
The entire trip would be 40 min followed by a pleasant drive to VanIsle over the connecting mudflats by bridge.
Somewhat bizarrely, from a political irony POV at least, this route, which removes the need to travel through the tunnel or over Burrard Inlet on the Lotuslandian side, was resurrected by a then headless and rust(ad)-free BC Conservative party in 2017.
Go figure!
****
Anyway, getting back to the matter at hand.
As is our want, the Wackadoodle II and I were wandering the beach at Iona yesterday.
Given the temperature, we had the entire thing pretty much to ourselves.
And as I gazed across the water and tried to imagine how far out a ferry terminal would have to go to clear the shallows it was impossible ignore (unless you were the Whackadoodle chewing on a stick) the ice in the river-mixed salt chuck.
Winter (outflow) winds, indeed...
And as I gazed across the water and tried to imagine how far out a ferry terminal would have to go to clear the shallows it was impossible ignore (unless you were the Whackadoodle chewing on a stick) the ice in the river-mixed salt chuck.
Winter (outflow) winds, indeed...
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Meanwhile, no burst pipes so far for us...Hope you all have weathered the worst of it as well...Looks like rain by Thursday...
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The real story of the "FastCats" has been overshadowed by repeating the Liberal inspired story which the media still repeats ad nauseam.
ReplyDeleteI good friend of mine, who has now passed away worked on the FastCats conversion from stern only construction with the addition of bow doors. The added weight caused all sorts of problems.
BC Ferries evidently did not want them but the NDP, who never make a mistake, went full steam making the unworkable, even more unworkable.
If the original Iona Island to Gabriola island scheme went through, the ferry fares wold have been much lower and our traffic patterns would be radically changed.
What it does show that a powerful, yet lobby group, scared the NDP so much that they changed everything for the worse.
I do not see any change with Eby and the NDP today with their disastrous and fool hardy quest for massive densification, which will lead to an utter fiasco within the next decade.
Just think a 40 minute ferry ride, one could commute from Richmond to Nanaimo or Duncan in 90 minutes, about the same average commute time from Abbotsford to Vancouver via Hwy 1. Think about that.
EE--
ReplyDeleteRe: the time...
I think about it... a lot...every time we get ready to leave for Tsawwassen and I realize that I could fly to Toronto in less time than it takes to get to Victoria.
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It was a combination of rel Nimbyism on Gabriola (which would gain a bridge and lose a ferry paid for by the taxpayer's of BC), NDP refusal to drop the boats and call it a day; and those damned bow doors.
ReplyDeleteThe saga of the bow doors is a story in itself, with NDP denial (which seems a genetic trait with the NDP) and millions spent on the redesign of the boats which caused all sorts of problems.
Those bow doors ruined a well designed boat but it also made them unsalable. Campbell and our mainstream media (a combination of Fox News and Pravda) made the FastCats not just toxic, but radio active.
Al then premier Clark had to do is make a speech saying :Due to the agitation those living on Gabriola island, rejecting a new bridge, means the Iona island Gabriola Island ferry route has been abandoned and all work on the Catamaran Ferries will cease due to their unsuitability to operate on the other two ferry route.
These boats were designed for a 40 minute run, which would make it much easier and cheaper for travel from Vancouver island to the Lower mainland.
It is sad a few people with a heavily subsidized ferry service have not seen the future and thus all work on the planned ferry route and boats must cease.
How many votes would you think Clark would have lost and how many votes would he have gained?
Instead we got two decades of FastCat fiasco, Gordon Campbell, Kevin Falcon and a bastardized ferry service.
I shudder to think of Gulf Island life should a bridge be built.
ReplyDeleteIsland life is a choice , choice to put up with inconveniences for relative peace and quiet.
Why are so many in a rush to travel from here to there at breakneck speed , to do what?
A Vancouver Island bridge would bring the biggest real estate boom for ocean front property BC has ever seen whilst further polluting beaches and bays.
Thankfully we are unlikely to have the population density required to justify the billions required to build such a project.
Realtors of course will be chomping at the bit as they have every time the subject comes up and they shovel $thousands into any political candidate calling for such.
Build it and they will come they say!
Bullshit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ratQlft_G5c
TB
A Vancouver Island bridge to the mainland is a piped ream has the huge cost today, around $20 billion, is not worth the cost, but a bridge from Gabriola Island to Vancouver island about the size of the Knight Street Bridge makes a lot of sense.
ReplyDeleteA bridge would provide service 24/7 and would mean a lot of savings for BC Ferries.
EE--
ReplyDeleteI do take TB's point about what it would do to life on Gabriola.
Now that the Duke Point terminal is there, would that work (from Iona)?
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ah, how cute is that. another ferry route, another highway. some one would make a shit load of money but not the taxpayers.
ReplyDeleteIf the province actually had that much money laying around, great. The money could be useed to provide housing for the unhoused, hiring more medical staff, expanding E.R.s and hospitals in general, more assistance for the disabled, higher rates for those on assistance, more affordable senior housing, more services for children to diagnosis mental health issues.
Its really nice to build more infrascture, but last time I checked more people died from illness, lack of housing, etc. than from sitting in a line up to get over a bridge, get on a ferry, etc. Some may argue a better highway system is good for the economy, but a good economy doesn't do much for a great many people in our province,
People who live in the Gulf Islands go there to get away from Vancouver Island and the mainland. The majority aren't interested in a bridge. It will only bring more people and a lot of traffic. A highway through Gabriola or a bridge, not so much.
What most people seem to forget is the Gulf Islands has a limited supply of water. Increasing the population will only cause wells to go dry. Of course developers would be thrilled. They could sell and be done with it. As to land on Vancouver Island, yes a real estate boom would be massive. At one point Timber West owned 80% of all privately held land on vancouver Island. If people thought logging was bad for the enviornment, wait until we have wall to wall subdivision on the Island.,
The parental units had a pre retirement home on one of the Gulf Islands for about 30 years. One could say Mom really got to know abouut wells and where the water came from. (parental units hired a water witch for house two, to find a well--worked wonders. Some people had ground water wells and some didn't. Those that didn't, spent a lot of money to get to an underground water source, which was usually a "river" under their property. What is interesting is back in the day, 1970s, they figured out some of that water came from Mount Baker via these under ground passages.
Animals can live without all sorts of things, and yes we're just another animals but you can't live without water.
As the saying goes, 3 minutes with out air, you're dead
3 hours without adequate shelter, you're dead
3 days without water, you're dead
3 months without food, you're dead
All the pro build more ferries, highways, bridges to the Gulf Islands and Vancouver Iand, might want to keep in mind, we have climate change and we already have droughts on Vancouver Island. Add say another 500K to the population and no one will be flushing toilets.
About a decade ago I purchased a book on waater. One of the interesting things mentioned by the author was 10K years ago Vancouver Island suffered such a sevre drought, the trees stopped growning.
Evil Eye, having a bridge from Gabriola to Nanaimo would not make sense. First the people who live there won't be too keen on that. How would you feel if there was something like the Knight st. bridge and adjacent highways going throgh your neighbourhood? Every one knows when you move to Vancouver Island or a Gulf Island, getting to the mainland can at times be problematic. That is the trade off, inconvience vs. a lovely quiet life.
ReplyDeleteWith a free way through Gabriola more people would want to live there and viola, we just ran out of water. any how those cutting through Gabriola will most likely negatively impact on the wildlife there.
As to a subsidy, well lets be truthful here, we are all subsidized in this province one way or another be it health care, garbage collection, schools, police, fire, roads, etc.
If we had to pay for it as some Americans do, there wouldn't be the services we have here.
The bridge would make sense if there was a ferry service from the mainland to Gabriola, then a bridge to Vancouver island.
ReplyDeleteThe fact is, the Iona/Gabriola Ferry route has been long studied and is a good project (I have talked to some engineers who prepared a study. The long tern effects of this route would have been easier connections and cheaper ferry fares.
The other item to consider is that a bridge over a 25 year period would be much cheaper than a ferry.
But it is all history now and be prepared for some massive ferry rate increases after the next provincial election.
The good burghers of Gabriola may wish to reflect that a free bridge would be better than a $20 ferry charge.
There is much more to life than being 'efficient' !!
ReplyDeleteWTF happened that did not include gods gift to islanders to attend a Canucks game or Vancouverites that wished for quick access to the islands 'quieter' places?
How quickly would it all meld into an extended metropolis of boredom?
TB
Without the FastCats construction there wouldn't have been a way to train tradespersons to work with a relatively new material. Aluminum.
ReplyDeleteHmmmm looking back to my time as a shipwright apprentice at Burrard Dry Dock, specifically on the two Weather Ships (1967) .... which ended up being top heavy, something to do with the Federal Government wanting to add a weather hanger for the helicopter(s), and then topping it off with the geodesic Dome to protect their weather equipment. So, from the keel to the flight deck was steel. The superstructure, including the sliding hanger, was aluminum.
The FastCat ferries were all aluminum.
The BC Liberals, used the vessels to make political points. They rejoiced and then got 'permission' from the Washington (the shipbuilder) which moored the FastCats in plain sight.
The upside to the FastCats (training created jobs) ...... just look around on the internet and check out how much aluminum is being used, now. No help from the BC Liberals / Kevin's United.
https://www.workopolis.com/jobsearch/aluminum-fabrication-jobs/vancouver-british-columbia