, YOUR COMMUNITY. E NEWSPAPER SINCE. 1969

THE VGICE

SET iS

August @, 1986 News 985-2131

‘Not enough su

ANOTHER permanently docked.

In an announcement Tuesday, Gulf Island Water Taxi (GIWT) vice-president Bill Hughes said his company’s West Vancouver to Expo site service was officially cancelled as of Monday.

“There was just not enough support,’” Hughcs said. *tAnd the berthing fees charged by Expo were just too high.”*

GIWT's ferry service, which took passengers from West Van- couver’s Dundarave Pier to Expo's maiine gate, was launched at the outset of the world’s fair in May, and was making if trips to the Expo site daily,

Discentiauation of the West Vancouver service follows cancellation at the end of July of Centurion Marine's Lonsdale

Chassified 986-6222

NORTH Shore

A

Expo ferry has

By TIMOTHY K News Reporter

Quay to Expo ferry service.

Centurion’s president Les Abraham, who invested about $300,000 in overhauling his 50-foat Georgia Master to launch the ser- vice, also blamed Expo’s high ber- thing fees for the demise of his business.

Expo originally charged com- muter ferries $25 each time they docked at the fair. Docking fees Nave since been reduces to S10.

BAD STAT ©

Those fees, Hughes said, got his service off to a bad start, With its

been

Distribution 986-1337 40 payes 25¢

pport’ for North Shore

schedule, GIWT was paying over $300 daily to dock at Expo.

“And froin $f to $2.50 per tick- et was going to pay those fees," Hughes said. ‘They reduced the price, but it was just too late.”'

GIWT invested about $160,000 in launching its service, $50,000 of which Went into upgrading the company’s 30-foot, 23-passenver Hawk 3 ferry and a further $4,000 in dredging the ocean floor at Dundarave Pier.

Hughes said net loss for GIWT would be $25,000, ‘tand of course we sul have the boat, but even our water taxi service in the Gulf Islands is slow. Expo is like a vacuum. [ts suckinz the business up from everywhere."

West Vancouver District, Mayor Derrick Humphreys said he was “sorry there was not sufficient patronage to support the service. It

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Shore News.

was a good try."

The $6,000 cost of dredging wround Dundarave Pier for GIWT's ferry was shared, in part, by West Vancouver. Humphreys said the expenditure was fully war- ranted, because, with or without the Expo ferry, the dredging was needed.

REDUCED DEMAND

Hughes, who also runs Wright's Travel, pointed out in an earlier interview that traffic problems predicted for North Shore com- muters on the Lions Gate and Se- cond Narrows bridges had not ma- terialized and therefore reduced ihe demand for North Shore Expo ferry services.

He estimated that the Hawk 3 was currying 100 passengers per day and said the service needed

run

closer to 158 daily to make a go of it. The ferry carried a total of 8,000 passengers during its Uhree- month lifespan,

With the collapse of the two ferry services, the North Shore is left with) Cormorant Marine's Horseshoe Bay to Expo site service as the sole direct marine access to the fair site.

Cormorant’s operations manag- er Mark Mathwig said Tuesday his company will expand its service to pick up at Dundarave three times daily: 9:20 a.m., 11:20 a.m. and 4:20 p.m.

A single one-way ticket aboard Cormorant’s 38-passenger Apodaca, which also runs to Bowen Island, costs $8 for adults and $35 for seniors. Mathwig said a one-way adult ticket from) Dun- darave to Expo will be $6, the same price charged by GIWT,

Slip

\ slidin’

away

VICTORIA Triangle’s Dallas Price puts the tag on a sliding opponent from Trail’s representative at the 1986 B.C. Little League championships. Whalley emerged triumphant in the 10-day baseball tournament after whipping Victoria 12-0 in Monday's championship game. The win completed Whalley’s undefeated sweep through the tournament that was played at North Van- couver’s Chris Zuehlke Park from July 26 to Aug. 4. Highlands, the North Van- couver representative in the eight-team competition, bat- tled its way into the semi- finals, but lost to Whalley 3-0. North Vancouver last hosted the tournament eight years ago. Whalley will now advance to the national little league championships.