Post by ferryfast admin on Oct 1, 2011 15:14:03 GMT -5
Uncharted waters ahead for B.C. Ferries
The Daily News - Canada.Com
www.canada.com/Uncharted+waters+ahead+Ferries/5488166/story.html
October 1, 2011
With David Hahn preparing to step down as B.C. Ferries CEO, the corporation is heading into uncharted waters.
Hahn, who is retiring 15 months earlier than planned, is the only president B.C. Ferries has had since it became a quasi-private corporation in 2003. He has been highly visible, and a lightningrod for everyone with a complaint about prices, service or anything else related to the ferries.
Under Hahn, B.C. Ferries has been. Labour tensions have eased dramatically, and that is reflected in the way customers are treated. Those changes came at a price. Fares, particularly on shorter routes serving Gulf Islands, have risen sharply and the number of sailings has been reduced.
Hahn became the focus of anger at rising fares and other issues - and the resentment grew when it was revealed he was being paid more than $1 million a year.
Ferries remain critical for Vancouver Island. As B.C. Ferries has worked to improve its bottom line, many communities have suffered. The ferries need to be seen as an essential transportation service, like highways, rather than a revenue-generating machine.
On the other hand, ferry users are more likely to see smiling employees and clean washrooms than they were a decade ago, along with new vessels and an increase in amenities. For many people, the ferry experience is better now.
And the ferry corporation is no longer subject to the whims of the government of the day. It took a steely resolve to keep the corporation independent from political interference. But that has a negative side. Taxpayers own the corporation, yet have virtually no say in how it is run. No one is directly accountable.
As Hahn cleans out his office, it's useful to look back to the state of the ferries when he arrived.
The government had just sold three catamarans, built for about $450 million, for less than $20 million. The fast ferry experiment remains an example of why politicians should leave some decisions to people with expertise. Passenger traffic had not grown in more than a decade. The system faced some $2 billion in needed capital investment.
And just three years earlier, the NDP government had forgiven $1.1 billion in debt, with more than half of that the result of long-term operating deficits.
Today, the numbers are still not pretty. Passenger traffic is below 2003's count, and vehicle traffic is at its lowest in 11 years. The corporation has made great progress in fleet upgrades, primarily the addition of three German built Coastal vessels, but it now has $1.3 billion in long term debt.
B.C. Ferries is facing a $20-million loss this year, so Hahn has announced a major cost-cutting - with his departure one of the elements.
He says travellers will not notice many of the cuts, although one exception will be the proposed cancellation of up to 400 round trips a year on the major routes. Every drop in service levels carries the risk of causing further damage to our economy.
The dire financial straits also raise the obvious question: Since the ferry system is a key part of our transportation infrastructure, why won't the provincial government increase its subsidies for the money-losing smaller routes? Until that is done, the bottom line will never work.
Whatever happens, the public - those of us who depend on the ferries especially - must be heard. We pay for the service, we rely on it, our communities' economic health depends on it and we should be satisfied the board's decisions always have our best interests at heart.
The Daily News - Canada.Com
www.canada.com/Uncharted+waters+ahead+Ferries/5488166/story.html
October 1, 2011
With David Hahn preparing to step down as B.C. Ferries CEO, the corporation is heading into uncharted waters.
Hahn, who is retiring 15 months earlier than planned, is the only president B.C. Ferries has had since it became a quasi-private corporation in 2003. He has been highly visible, and a lightningrod for everyone with a complaint about prices, service or anything else related to the ferries.
Under Hahn, B.C. Ferries has been. Labour tensions have eased dramatically, and that is reflected in the way customers are treated. Those changes came at a price. Fares, particularly on shorter routes serving Gulf Islands, have risen sharply and the number of sailings has been reduced.
Hahn became the focus of anger at rising fares and other issues - and the resentment grew when it was revealed he was being paid more than $1 million a year.
Ferries remain critical for Vancouver Island. As B.C. Ferries has worked to improve its bottom line, many communities have suffered. The ferries need to be seen as an essential transportation service, like highways, rather than a revenue-generating machine.
On the other hand, ferry users are more likely to see smiling employees and clean washrooms than they were a decade ago, along with new vessels and an increase in amenities. For many people, the ferry experience is better now.
And the ferry corporation is no longer subject to the whims of the government of the day. It took a steely resolve to keep the corporation independent from political interference. But that has a negative side. Taxpayers own the corporation, yet have virtually no say in how it is run. No one is directly accountable.
As Hahn cleans out his office, it's useful to look back to the state of the ferries when he arrived.
The government had just sold three catamarans, built for about $450 million, for less than $20 million. The fast ferry experiment remains an example of why politicians should leave some decisions to people with expertise. Passenger traffic had not grown in more than a decade. The system faced some $2 billion in needed capital investment.
And just three years earlier, the NDP government had forgiven $1.1 billion in debt, with more than half of that the result of long-term operating deficits.
Today, the numbers are still not pretty. Passenger traffic is below 2003's count, and vehicle traffic is at its lowest in 11 years. The corporation has made great progress in fleet upgrades, primarily the addition of three German built Coastal vessels, but it now has $1.3 billion in long term debt.
B.C. Ferries is facing a $20-million loss this year, so Hahn has announced a major cost-cutting - with his departure one of the elements.
He says travellers will not notice many of the cuts, although one exception will be the proposed cancellation of up to 400 round trips a year on the major routes. Every drop in service levels carries the risk of causing further damage to our economy.
The dire financial straits also raise the obvious question: Since the ferry system is a key part of our transportation infrastructure, why won't the provincial government increase its subsidies for the money-losing smaller routes? Until that is done, the bottom line will never work.
Whatever happens, the public - those of us who depend on the ferries especially - must be heard. We pay for the service, we rely on it, our communities' economic health depends on it and we should be satisfied the board's decisions always have our best interests at heart.