British Columbia Ferry Services Inc., operating as BC Ferries (BCF), is a former provincial Crown corporation, now operating as an independently managed, publicly owned Canadian company. BC Ferries provides all major passenger and vehicle ferry services for coastal and island communities in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Set up in 1960 to provide a similar service to that provided by the Black Ball Line and the Canadian Pacific Railway, which were affected by job action at the time, BC Ferries has become the largest passenger ferry line in North America, operating a fleet of 41 vessels with a total passenger and crew capacity of over 27,000, serving 47 locations on the B.C. coast.
The federal and provincial governments subsidize BC Ferries to provide agreed service levels on essential links between the BC mainland, coastal islands, and parts of the mainland without road access. The inland ferries operating on British Columbia's rivers and lakes are not run by BC Ferries. The responsibility for their provision rests with the British Columbia Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, which contracts operation to various private sector companies.
Structure At its inception, BC Ferries was a division of the British Columbia Toll Highways and Bridges Authority, a provincial Crown corporation. Through successive reorganizations, it evolved into the British Columbia Ferry Authority and then the British Columbia Ferry Corporation, both of which were also provincial Crown corporations. In 2003, the Government of British Columbia announced that BC Ferries, which had been in debt, would be reorganized into a private corporation, implemented through the passage of the Coastal Ferry Act (Bill 18–2003). The single voting share of BC Ferries Corporation is held by the provincial government's BC Ferry Authority, which operates under the rules of the Act.
History In the summer of 1958, a strike by employees of CP Steamships and the Black Ball Line caused the Social Credit government of W. A. C. Bennett to decide that the coastal ferry service in British Columbia needed to be government-owned, and so it set about creating BC Ferries. Minister of Highways Phil Gaglardi was tasked with overseeing the new Crown corporation and its rapid expansion.
BC Ferries' first route, commissioned in 1960, was between Swartz Bay, north of Sidney on Vancouver Island, and Tsawwassen, an area in Delta, using just two vessels. These ships were the now-retired MV Tsawwassen and the MV Sidney. The next few years saw a dramatic growth of the B.C. ferry system as it took over operations of the Black Ball Line and other major private companies providing vehicle ferry service between Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland. As the ferry system expanded and started to service other small coastal communities, BC Ferries had to build more vessels, many of them in the first five years of its operations, to keep up with the demand. Another method of satisfying increasing demand for service was BC Ferries' unique "stretch and lift" program, involving seven vessels being cut in half and extended, and five of those vessels later cut in half again and elevated, to increase their passenger and vehicle-carrying capacities. The vast majority of the vessels in the fleet were built in B.C. waters, with only two foreign purchases and one domestic purchase. In the mid-1980s, BC Ferries took over the operations of the saltwater branch of the B.C. Ministry of Transportation and Highways, which ran ferry services to very small coastal communities. This action dramatically increased the size of BC Ferries' fleet and its geographical service area. The distinctive "dogwood on green" flag that BC Ferries used between 1960 and 2003 gave the service its popular nickname "the Dogwood Fleet".
During the 1990s, the NDP government commissioned a series of three fast ferries to improve ferry service between the Mainland and Vancouver Island. The vessels proved problematic when they suffered many technical issues, such as causing oversized wakes that destroyed docks, and accelerated shoreline erosion. The fast ferries ended up costing double what was expected. The fast ferries were eventually sold off for $19.4 million in 2003.
A controversy began in July 2004 when BC Ferries, under a new American CEO, announced that the company had disqualified all Canadian bids to build three new ships, and only the proposals from European shipyards were being considered. The contract was estimated at $542 million for the three ships, each designed to carry 370 vehicles and 1600 passengers.
The argument for domestic construction of the ferries was that it would employ numerous British Columbia workers, revitalize the sagging B.C. shipbuilding industry, and entitle the provincial government to a large portion of the cost in the form of taxes. BC Ferries CEO David Hahn claimed that building the ferries in Germany would "save almost $80 million and could lead to lower fares."
On September 17, 2004, BC Ferries awardedMicrosoft Word – 04-071 Super C.doc. Bcferries.com (June 21, 2012). Retrieved June 25, 2012. the vessel construction contract to Germany's Flensburger shipyard. The contract protected BC Ferries from any delays through a fixed price and fixed schedule contract. entered service in March 2008, while was delivered the same month and entered service in June that year. The third ship, , was delivered in June of the same year and entered service in November.
On August 18, 2006, BC Ferries commissionedMedia Room | BC Ferries – British Columbia Ferry Services Inc. BC Ferries (June 21, 2012). Retrieved June 25, 2012. Flensburger to build a new vessel for its Inside Passage route, with the contract having many of the same types of terms as that for the Coastal-class vessels. The new northern service vessel, , was delivered in March 2008, and entered service in May of the same year.
On August 26, 2012, BC Ferries announced that it would be cutting 98 round trips on its major routes starting in the fall and winter of 2012 as part of a four-year plan to save $1 million on these routes. Service cuts have included the elimination of supplementary sailings on the Swartz Bay–Tsawwassen route, 18 round trips on the Horseshoe Bay–Departure Bay route, and 48 round trips, the largest number of cuts, on the Duke Point–Tsawwassen route, with plans to look for savings on the smaller unprofitable routes in the future.
Free ferry trips for seniors were suspended from April 2014 to April 2018.
In the fall of 2014, BC Ferries announced the addition of three new Intermediate-class ferries to phase out Queen of Burnaby and Queen of Nanaimo. These three vessels were to be named the ; Salish Orca, Salish Eagle and Salish Raven. In 2022, Salish Heron, the fourth Salish-class vessel, entered service. All four ferries were designed and built by Remontowa Shipbuilding S.A. in Gdansk, Poland, and are dual-fuel, capable of operating on liquefied natural gas and marine diesel. These vessels are a part of BC Ferries standardized fleet plan, which will take the number of ship classes in the BC Ferries fleet from 17 to 5.Shipbuilding Plan. BC Ferries (Summer 2018). Retrieved September 8, 2023. The proposed replacement classes are Northern, Salish, Shuttle, Summit, and Island. Additionally, there will still be three unique (unclassed) vessels in the fleet after standardization is complete. BC Ferries has stated, however, that this total standardization of the fleet will not be achieved for another 40 years. As of March 2024, the fleet has so far been reduced to 11 classes of vessels, with 5 unique (unclassed) vessels remaining as well.
In August 2022, BC Ferries announced plans to launch an official mobile application. The app was released in March 2023.
Financial results
Current routes Route numbers are used internally by BC Ferries only. All routes except Route 13 and the Unregulated routes carry vehicles. Route assignments current as of May 21, 2026. +Official routesRoute numberRoute name/LocationHighway carriedOriginDestination(s)Crossing TimePrimary Vessel(s)Notes1Georgia Strait South Highway 17Victoria (via Swartz Bay, on Vancouver Island)Vancouver (via Tsawwassen)1 hour and 35 minutes MV Coastal Celebration MV Queen of New Westminster MV Spirit of British Columbia MV Spirit of Vancouver Island—2Georgia Strait Central Highway 1Nanaimo (via Departure Bay, on Vancouver Island)Vancouver (via Horseshoe Bay)1 hour and 40 mintues MV Queen of Cowichan MV Queen of Oak Bay—3Howe Sound - Mainland Highway 101Vancouver (via Horseshoe Bay)Sunshine Coast (via Langdale)40 minutes MV Queen of Coquitlam MV Queen of Surrey—4Satellite Channel—Victoria (via Swartz Bay, on Vancouver Island)Salt Spring Island (via Fulford Harbour)35 minutes MV Skeena Queen—5/5ASwanson Channel—Victoria (via Swartz Bay, on Vancouver Island)Southern Gulf Islands - Galiano Island (via Sturdies Bay), Mayne Island (via Village Bay), (North) Pender Island (via Otter Bay), and Saturna Island (via Lyall Harbour)Varies MV Queen of Cumberland (5A) MV Salish Raven (5)Circle route.6South Stuart Channel—Crofton (on Vancouver Island)Salt Spring Island (via Vesuvius Bay)20 minutes MV Quinsam MV Island G̲wawis (upcoming) MV Island K'ulut'a (upcoming)—7Jervis Inlet - Sunshine Coast Highway 101Sunshine Coast (via Earls Cove)Powell River (via Saltery Bay)50 minutes MV Malaspina Sky—8Queen Charlotte Channel—Vancouver (via Horseshoe Bay)Bowen Island (via Snug Cove)20 minutes MV Queen of Capilano—9/9AActive Pass Shuttle—Vancouver (via Tsawwassen)Southern Gulf Islands - Galiano Island (via Sturdies Bay), Mayne Island (via Village Bay), (North) Pender Island (via Otter Bay), Saturna Island (via Lyall Harbour), and Salt Spring Island (via Long Harbour)Varies MV Salish Eagle (9) MV Salish Heron (9A)Circle route.10Inside Passage Highway 19Port Hardy (via Bear Cove, on Vancouver Island)Prince Rupert (on Kaien Island)16 hours MV Northern ExpeditionBC Ferries' longest route.11Hecate Strait Highway 16Prince Rupert (on Kaien Island)Haida Gwaii (via Skidegate, on Graham Island)6 hours and 30 minutes - 8 hours MV Northern Adventure—12Saanich Inlet - Vancouver Island—Brentwood BayMill Bay25 minutes MV Klitsa—13Thornbrough Channel—Sunshine Coast (via Langdale)Gambier Island (via New Brighton) and Keats Island (via Keats Landing and Eastbourne)Varies MV Stormaway III MV Stormaway IVOperated by Kona Winds Yacht Charters Ltd.17Georgia Strait North—Comox (via Little River, on Vancouver Island)Powell River (via Westview)1 hour and 25 minutes MV Salish Orca—18Malaspina Strait—Powell River (via Westview)Texada Island (via Blubber Bay)35 minutes MV Island Discovery—19Northumberland Channel—Nanaimo (via Nanaimo Harbour, on Vancouver Island)Gabriola Island (via Descanso Bay)20 minutes MV Island G̲wawis (auxiliary) MV Island xwsaĺux̌ul MV Island sarlequun—20North Stuart Channel—Chemainus (on Vancouver Island)Thetis Island (via Preedy Harbour) and Penelakut Island (via Telegraph Habour)Varies MV Pune'luxutthTriangle route.21Baynes Sound—Buckley Bay (on Vancouver Island)Denman Island (via Denman Island West)10 minutes MV Baynes Sound Connector MV Kahloke (relief)BC Ferries' shortest routes.22Lambert Channel—Denman Island (via Gravelly Bay)Hornby Island (via Shingle Spit)10 minutes MV Quinitsa 23Discovery Passage—Campbell River (on Vancouver Island)Quadra Island (via Quathiaski Cove)10 minutes MV Island K'ulut'a