Unless they make it a premium fare like the West Coast Express. People living in North/West Van can certainly afford a higher fare..

Or just make the North Shore zone 3...?

That doesn't change anything... from Zone 3 to Zone 1, if I don't pass Zone 2, is a 2 Zone fare. The only way you can do it is make Burrard Inlet a Zone 2, but why are we making the fare more expensive? People using the Sea Bus, generally live in North Van and they have horrible transit as it is already.

Supply and demand. It is too expensive to maintain service to meet demand at current fare levels, so increase fares to; a) lower total ridership, b) produce enough cash-flow to support a 3rd ferry, or c) both consequences "a" and "b"

Personally I'm not a fan of lowering ridership, but if you have 2 ferries and you need 3, but can't afford 3, something has gotta give. I'd rather see improved cashflow to make a 3rd ferry more affordable, however.

^Well, it's not really an issue about fares. It's an issue of competence. Or lack thereof. How the hell can TransLink reasonably take one of these boats, which are really in great shape, out of service.

Why. Because they don't want to be embarrassed that they cannot operate three vessel sailings? As mentioned above, the demand is there. And if you have a three sailing service, you create more demand.

TransLink has not been nearly transparent enough on this issue, and breaking this news on their blog of all places truly represents the height of arrogance. I don't think the public understands what is at stake, I don't think commuters know what is at stake, and I don't think the North Shore mayors know what is at stake.

I agree on that: we really don't know much information about it. If it's too expensive to refurbish the old vessels, then don't.

New pics from the Buzzer of the new Seabus entering Vancouver Harbour:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thebuzz...7622579837052/

WOW - it does sit high in the water! (unloaded, anyways - they look to be similar in dock?).
Apart from the boring bridge tower design, it is a much taller bridge.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2618/...7b9f904dbe.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2526/...ef8d2bb47c.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2480/...e11f0261df.jpg

The new seabus looks like it is the top part of a bc ferry, waiting to picked up and placed on top of a much larger ship.

I'm sure it is way better than the existing ships, but the old girls look way better plying burrard inlet than this new one does.

this one looks like a dumb ass from outside...u can't find anything like this in japan, china, germany or anywhere else...

Looks a bit like a bigger version of the Halifax-Dartmouth Ferry:

From Wiki:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ifax_ferry.JPG

its so utilitarian, even scary. The old ones are definitely more attractive

Watching the new seabus during pratice runs right now, it's sailing in between the stations, weaving between the operational seabuses. Seems quite manoeuvrable as well, I watched it doing donuts on spot right in front of waterfront station while it waited for a docked seabus to leave.

man it looks ugly compared to the older ones even with the nice colours
make me wish they could fix the two older ones now instead of keeping that ugly one
bet the older ones would look even cooler with the new colours
this new one looks like a floating block

also it would be cool if you could go outside like the Halifax-Dartmouth Ferry

The older ones were perfect. There was no reason to replace them.
This is a major fiasco. This new Seabus could be TransLink's own fast ferries...

I like the new ones. The replacement plan doesn't make any sense.

At the end of the day, couldn't we have all three Seabuses in service? Is it going to cost $$$ all that much more? Does it pose a marine safety hazard?

It would be so good to have all three ships in service, with a shorter wait between ferries.

There is no way you can say that with any authority, unless you have insight into their current mechanical condition.

The old seabuses are slightly older than our C-class ferries, which are the oldest large ferries in BC Ferries' fleet. The two seabuses have far more service hours and get less rehabilitation time than any C-class ferry.

It's quite possible that the seabuses are in similar condition to the V-class ferries that were recently retired.

Unless you can share specific info?

We have our answer to this, don't we? Translink says it would cost more to rehab and maintain an old seabus than build a new one.

(Buzzer Blog, 2009)

good seats, who was yelling wow wow...haha

People in the City of North Van are not any wealthier than anywhere else in the lower mainland for the most part. I don't even make 30k myself and can barely afford a two zone (which is BS as it is considering my commute is much shorter than most people's - I walk on both sides on the seabus).

Wealthy people on the north shore generally don't take the seabus.

As for the pics, it's a pleasant surprise inside but even uglier than expected outside. I guess that's better than the other way around.