"New SeaBus almost in service"

[Know It All]

As reported by CKWX news blog

"New SeaBus almost in service

Christened at Victoria Shipyards, Friday

Jim Goddard VANCOUVER (NEWS1130)  | Friday, July 24th, 2009 9:20 pm VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) -

The third SeaBus is a step closer to going into service, after being christened the MV Burrard Pacific Breeze at Victoria Shipyards, Friday.

Christening honours went to Maureen Hayes, the longest serving female crewmember aboard SeaBus. She's been with them since 1983. The Pacific Breeze will join her sister ships Burrard Beaver and Burrard Otter in service in December. After the Olympics, the older SeaBuses will take turns being pulled out of service for technical upgrades. With all three ships running, passenger capacity will go up 50 per cent."

[saturday]

does anyone here ride the seabus often? the few times i have been on it, it wasnt exactly full so im not sure if a third one is needed.

[Nat]

Silly saturday, it'll be in service just in time for the owelympics. 

[Superchecker]

does anyone here ride the seabus often? the few times i have been on it, it wasnt exactly full so im not sure if a third one is needed.

Translink wants to increase the rush hour service to every 10 minutes.... The original 2 vessels are now 32 years old, and in need of major retrofits... There were possible plans to add different routes... During peak summer tourist months, the vessels occasionally have sailing waits!
Each sailing can handle up to 400 passengers...

[Fornicator]

I'd be curious to see how much the new Seabus cost and what the costs are for mainting the fleet, staffing them, etc.

Surely, a fixed-link option would be far superior--whether another bridge or a tunnel.

[Superchecker]

How much to plan and design and build a bridge? Where would you put the traffic? How much to expropriate the required land for roadways and base of the bridges? How long to build it? What would THAT toll be? Would the residests want a bridge at the end of Lonsdale?

 Wasn't there public debate like 10 years ago, maybe 15 years now, as to what options to do before they refurbished the Lions Gate bridge?

 I rememeber some old guy on the news once, with an even older plan to tunnel under Burrard Inlet, but no one wanted to pay the cost!

[Fornicator]

They've been talking about tunneling to the North Shore since the 1890s.

You could put down a four or six lane tunnel for a reasonable cost and even run a SkyTrain line through it.

The Seabus seems like such an antiquated idea and one that does nothing to help the movement of vehicles and goods should something happen to either of the bridges.

[DDD]

Tunneling is the way to go

[NSgirl]

tunneling would raise our taxes big time!

[DDD]

tunneling would raise our taxes big time!

another nay sayer....................vancouver is so full of them............glad this is from alberta 

[Nat]

Maybe the solution is the same one used to get rid of the Albion Ferry, we get someone else to build the tunnel then charge the customers for use.

[wednesday]

dump a bunch of dirt/sand/rock/gravel and join up stanley park with the north shore. no need for a bridge or tunnel.