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 36 vessels with a total passenger and crew capacity of over 27,000, serving 47 locations on the B.C. coast.
The Powell River-class ferry is a class of ships operated by BC Ferries. The open deck vessels were/are mostly used on low-to-moderate volume routes, with Mayne Queen having operated permanently on Route 5, connecting the Outer Gulf Islands with Swartz Bay, Powell River Queen on Route 23, Campbell River to Quadra Island, and Bowen Queen having been on relief duty, typically filling in on Routes 4, 5, and 9.
The K-class ferries are a group of similarly designed ferries operated by both BC Ferries and TransLink in British Columbia, Canada.
MV Queen of Coquitlam is a C-class ferry in the BC Ferries fleet, launched in 1976. She first operated on BC Ferries' Horseshoe Bay to Departure Bay route. For most of her life, she has been a replacement/relief vessel on all the major routes serving Metro Vancouver. She is named for the city of Coquitlam.
Allied Shipbuilders Ltd is a privately held shipbuilding and ship repairing company established in Canada in 1948.
Cortes Island is an island in the Discovery Islands archipelago on the coast of British Columbia, Canada. The island is 25 km (16 mi) long, 13 km (8 mi) wide, and 130 km2 (50 sq mi) in area. It has a population of 1,035 permanent residents. Cortes Island lies within Electoral Area B of the Strathcona Regional District, which provides water and sewerage systems, fire protection, land use planning, parks, recreation, and emergency response.
Victoria Machinery Depot Ltd. was a historic metalworks and shipyard in Victoria, Canada.
Whaletown is a settlement on Cortes Island, British Columbia, Canada. It is known as the gateway to Cortes Island. A public ferry links Whaletown to Heriot Bay on Quadra Island. It is featured in the 2013 Man Booker long-list work of fiction by author Ruth Ozeki, A Tale for the Time Being.
MV Malaspina Sky is an Intermediate-class ferry in the BC Ferries fleet built in 2008.
Asbury Park was a high-speed coastal steamer built in Philadelphia, and intended to transport well-to-do persons from New York to summer homes on the New Jersey shore. This vessel was sold to West Coast interests in 1918, and later converted to an automobile ferry, serving on various routes San Francisco Bay, Puget Sound and British Columbia. This vessel was known by a number of other names, including City of Sacramento, Kahloke, Langdale Queen, and Lady Grace.
MV Queen of Chilliwack was a ferry owned by BC Ferries, built in Norway in 1978, then known as Bastø I. The ferry route she was assigned to was the Moss–Horten Ferry in the Oslofjord.
MV Mill Bay was a Canadian ferry. At 37.49 metres (123 ft) long, it was BC Ferries' second-smallest ship. It holds 16 vehicles, 138 passengers and crew, and its maximum speed is 9 knots (17 km/h). The Mill Bay operated in the Brentwood Bay-Mill Bay route across Saanich Inlet on Vancouver Island.
Heriot Bay is the principal settlement on Quadra Island in British Columbia, Canada.
The MV Quinitsa is an automobile ferry operated by BC Ferries. It was built in 1977 by Vancouver Shipyards in Vancouver, British Columbia. The ferry was originally part of the Ministry of Transportation and Highways' (MoT) saltwater ferry fleet until 1985, when the MoT's saltwater ferries—including Quinitsa—were transferred to BC Ferries.
The MV Tenaka is a ferry previously owned by BC Ferries. She was built for BC's Ministry of Transportation and Highways in 1964 in Victoria, British Columbia by the Victoria Machinery Depot. Originally named the Comox Queen, she was renamed Tenaka in 1977 and became part of BC Ferries' fleet in 1985 when the Ministry of Transportation's saltwater ferries and routes were transferred to BC Ferries. As of April 2016, the Tenaka was sold to Lady Rose Marine Services, a tourism company operating out of Port Alberni, British Columbia.
N-class ferries are a class of RORO ferries, of which two remaining examples are owned by BC Ferries. These ferries have the distinction of being the smallest vessels owned by BC Ferries.
Princess Marguerite, Princess Marguerite II, and Princess Marguerite III was a series of Canadian coastal passenger vessels that operated along the west coast of British Columbia and into Puget Sound in Washington state almost continuously from 1925 to 1999. Known locally as "the Maggie", they saw the longest service of any vessel that carried passengers and freight between Victoria, Vancouver, and Seattle. The vessels were owned and operated by a series of companies, primarily Canadian Pacific Railway Company (CPSS) and British Columbia Steamships Corporation. The first two were part of the CPR "Princess fleet," which was composed of ships having names which began with the title "Princess". These were named after Marguerite Kathleen Shaughnessy, who was not a princess but was the daughter of Baron Thomas Shaughnessy, then chairman of the board of CPSS's parent, the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR).
The Westview ferry terminal is a ferry terminal in Powell River, British Columbia, Canada. It is located on Malaspina Strait, part of the Strait of Georgia, on the northern Sunshine Coast and provides connections to Texada Island and Vancouver Island. The ferry port is connected to Highway 101 via a short access road.
The Island-class ferries are ferries owned and operated by BC Ferries. Six vessels were built between 2019 and 2021 by Damen Shipyards Group, a Dutch company, in Romania. The first two ships were launched in mid-March 2019, and commenced service in June 2020. Two of an additional four vessels commenced service in April 2022, and the remaining two are due to enter service in late 2022.
