The life of a short haul ferry captain

News item: Electrical problems cause ferry delays at island airport

If you happened to be one of the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport passengers who was inconvenienced on Friday evening, you got a taste for the benefits of the proposed pedestrian tunnel. Remarkable as the Ontario-made ferry system is, there are times during the year when things will go awry. In February 2009, ice in the ferry slip destroyed a bow thruster; this past weekend, an electrical problem meant the ferry couldn’t properly dock in the slip and unload cars and passengers.

With service from 5:30 am to midnight, 365 days a year, a 90 minute service interruption seems predictable from time to time. As someone who takes the subway with much regularity, I know machines aren’t perfect. The back-up ferry, David Hornell VC, was put into service and things returned to normal at 9pm. The next morning, the Marilyn Bell I was back on duty.

Fortunately, the Toronto Port Authority has been building the infrastructure at the Billy Bishop Airport to tackle these types of events. 23 months ago, the Board ordered a new, larger ferry (the Marilyn Bell I) from a local shipyard. It went into service about 12 months ago, and we were able to use the renamed David Hornell VC as the backup for just these types of situations. Can you imagine in the TTC ran the Yonge bus line without any backup buses?

But that’s exactly what folks like City Councillor Adam Vaughan would suggest. He has been very critical of the TPA’s decision to acquire the second, larger ferry, claiming it was unnecessary and wasteful (a Star journo called it “a toy” of the Port Authority) — despite the fact that it is was paid for by passenger Airport Improvement Fees. For the folks trying to get to their destination on Friday evening, did the Hornell look like a “toy” to you?

At this time of year, when I think of toys, Lego or Polly Pockets come to mind.

Friday’s experience is one more example of why the TPA Board has gone ahead with the environmental assessment into the proposed pedestrian tunnel project. With more than 105,000 passengers last month, up 50x in five years, access to the airport is not a luxury. As wonderful as the ferry system is, there’s no avoiding the fact that the airport continues to grow in popularity. With that popularity comes passengers, and at peak load times, even the ferry system is strained by the airport’s success.

There’s nothing particularly fancy about building the infrastructure that Toronto needs to get the most out of our collective assets. And it does take some intestinal fortitude to get the job done, with so many tomatoes wizzing around. Thanks for your patience on Friday evening; everyone was safe, if a bit cold.

In 1935, The Globe and Mail editorial board called a tunnel to the airport “inevitable”. Turns out that it wasn’t; and the anti-airport types have already said they’ll go to Court in the hopes of tying the proposed P3 pedestrian tunnel project up in legal knots.

There are plenty of hoops ahead. But as you saw on Friday night, a single access strategy has definite downsides. And we’re doing our best to rectify that, despite the obstacles.

MRM
(disclosure: this blog, as always, reflects a personal view and in no way represents the views of the TPA, its Board/Staff or the federal government)