A New Oak Bay Ferry Terminal! (or Why doesn’t Victoria have more sea connections?)
Every once and awhile, I get something into my head and it bounces around in there until I put it out into the world. Before you read on, be aware that this is more of a thought process rather than a fully baked idea. If you have been reading the blog for the last few years, you may remember a couple of previous times I posted on big ideas that are unlikely to actually ever happen. There was of course, the Douglas Street Bus Tunnel and another time I posted about turning unused commercial space into pop-up maker spaces. I think it is important to continue to put ideas like this out into the world just so that we can look at things a little differently and maybe even start a conversation about other options to solve a problem. So with that said, here is my latest thought.
Perhaps it’s because I have spent more time on the island over the last three years before leaving than I have in the last twenty-five, that the real “islandness” of our home has become more focused in my mind. That lack of a real ability to leave for a lengthy period of time made the ways we currently have to leave more prominent. While Victoria is on an island, it’s also surrounded by several cities and actually sits pretty much in the centre of a massive mega-region. Given that, you would think that we would have a myriad of sea connections, certainly many more than we actually do. Consider that in the Greater Victoria region, we really only have basically four (well currently three) ferry connections. There is the Coho Ferry to the south connecting us with Port Angeles. Also departing from the Inner Harbour is the Victoria Clipper connecting us with Seattle. Then at the top of the Saanich Peninsula, we have the Sidney ferries to Vancouver and the Gulf Islands. We also hopefully will see a return of the Washington State Ferries route to San Juan Island and Anacortes. Of those listed, only one is a fast passenger ferry.
This may seem like enough, but really for an island surrounded by a number of cities, it is actually pretty small, especially with the population of Victoria now crossing the 400k mark. As with so many things in Victoria, I think that a lot of this comes down to small town thinking, that somehow there isn’t a market for back and forth travel to many of the places around here. Still, it seems strange that we can’t find a market for Friday Harbor, Bellingham or Vancouver.
The chief concern that is raised when it comes to marine transportation compared to air travel (actually we have the same problem with our air connections, just on a different scale) is that it just takes that little bit too long. We saw this specific problem come up with the recent attempt to again, have a ferry to Vancouver from the Inner Harbour. The V2V ferry ran for just two years before shutting down. While many complained about the pricing structure, the most limiting factor was the 3.5 hour sailing time, especially when compared to travelling by seaplane. Would it have been a different outcome if there was a way to get the trip to Vancouver under 3 hours without even changing the type of boat?
How is it possible you might ask? Most of the connection issues with Victoria by sea could be solved by simply changing where the boats depart from. Not all of them, of course, but a Vancouver ferry, maybe a Seattle ferry, a Bellingham ferry and definitely a San Juan Island ferry could all be serviced through departures from Oak Bay instead of Downtown Victoria (Just to be clear, I am only discussing passenger ferries here, I don’t think we need to be creating further vehicle ferry options beyond what we have at this time). Now when you are moving around Victoria the difference between getting downtown and getting to Oak Bay can be challenging if you don’t have a car but that could easily be remedied with transit.
Oak Bay Marina is ideally located, as it is still in the urban core of Victoria, but as it is on the eastern side of the south part of the island it shaves off at least 30 minutes in travel time by boat, likely more. To be more detailed, the distance between Victoria Harbour and Oak Bay Marina is about 8 nautical miles and especially when you take into consideration the slower speeds required in transiting the Inner Harbour, 30 to 35 minutes in travel time is possibly even on the low side. A Vancouver headed passenger ferry from Oak Bay would take about 2 hours and 55 minutes, maybe less and as an additional benefit wouldn’t have to transit any portion of the Juan de Fuca Strait which has the roughest weather of the entire journey. That means fewer cancellations and less seasickness for those taking the trip.
Basic Overview of Turkey Head Ferry Terminal
While not quite as beneficial, there would be time savings on a trip to Seattle as well from Oak Bay Marina, though weather related cancellations would still exist as it would still have to cross Juan de fuca. That is just the start though.
Once you can reduce the travel times to other close destinations, it makes them more financially viable. A trip from Oak Bay Marina to Roche Harbour on San Juan Island could be done in about 40 minutes. Friday Harbor, the main town on San Juan could be reached in just over an hour. Taking it further, a trip to Bellingham Washington would take about 3 hours. None of these would seem like possibilities if you added a further 35 - 45 minutes onto them, but by just shifting the departure from one side of the city to the other, would make a massive difference and I think create some great additional destinations for Victorians, but even better create further opportunities for tourists to come over to Victoria and spend some time and money here.
Now there are two big challenges with this idea, one is how transportation has been set-up in the core of the city and the bigger issue is how Oak Bay Marina itself is set-up
As it is, all roads lead to the Inner Harbour, making it the obvious departing point for ferries. Travel time between the Inner Harbour and Oak Bay Marina is currently about twelve minutes by car and about twenty-five minutes on transit. If you shift your starting point though, it gives you a better perspective. If you compare getting to either the Inner Harbour or Oak Bay Marina from Hillside Mall, Oak Bay Marina wins out in timing for both cars and transit. But that is how it is now, as we see Oak Bay Avenue continue to develop, at some point there would be significant benefit in having LRT or at least a streetcar run down the road and if there were the impetus of a new passenger ferry terminal at Turkey Head, it may just make it even more viable. Still as I said, the transit options are the smaller of the two big problems to solve here.
The main challenge with putting a terminal at Turkey Head is that it would require a whole new space unless the ferries being used were very small, as the marina entrance is narrow and fairly shallow. Instead as the drawing I did up shows, a proper passenger terminal here would require a new pier and the changing the location of one of the current breakwaters. There would also need to be significant ecological review due to the proximity of the Chain Islets. Partnership with the Songhees First Nation would also be a must, especially due to the proximity of the Chatham Islands just to the east of here. That said, I think that in the end, it would be a beneficial endeavour, that would have environmental benefits in the reduction of GHGs in passenger ship sailing time and potential to reduce air travel; and significant economic benefit for Victoria in having increased connection to our Salish Sea neighbours.
What do you think? Could something like this work? Is there something else we should be doing to encourage more sea connections? Let me know in the comments!
