Are Gabriolans travelling less?
A couple of statistics caught my attention in a June 7 article in The Daily News and referred to in Gabriolan.ca on the same day – History of Gabriola’s Quinsam ferry. During fiscal 2008-09 the MV Quinsam carried 823,578 passengers and 386,595 vehicles. Was the Quinsam the only vessel on the Gabriola-Nanaimo run during this time? Are the statistics just for the Quinsam or for all Gabriola-Nanaimo traffic on BC Ferries? So far, I have been unable to find any recent passenger and vehicle usage statistics. BC Ferries does not carry them on its web site or in its annual reports, it seems. Any help would be appreciated!
The reason for my curiosity lies in statistics found in Hansard for the mid-nineteen eighties. For example, in fiscal 1984-85 the Quinsam, which became a BC Ferries vessel during this time, carried 731,751 passengers and 305,242 vehicles. This, at a time when Gabriola’s population was likely around 2,000. Today, our population is probably around 5,000. If ferry usage had kept pace with population, in 2008-09 the Quinsam should have carried about 1,800,000 passengers and over 750,000 vehicles. Have Gabriolans individually, over the last 25 years, really cut their Nanaimo trips in half?
Filed in ferries,Gabriola Island,Gabriola people,history One Response so far
One Response to “Are Gabriolans travelling less?”
Rick on 10 Jun 2010 at 12:49 pm #
In those days you had to go to Nanaimo for all your groceries etc. Now that we have Village foods, etc, there is less need to go to town.