No ferry reso? Don’t go to Horseshoe Bay, police say

Don’t even bother.

That’s the message from the West Vancouver Police Department to anyone heading to Horseshoe Bay Ferry Terminal without a vehicle reservation Friday.

“[BC Ferries has] just told us that, as we are talking to drivers if they don’t have a reservation, to get them to turn around,” Const. Duncan West told 1130 NewsRadio.

“It’s so bad, we are kilometres away from the terminal and it’s a parking lot.”

West says the wait to get to Horseshoe Bay is blocking the highway to the point where people are unable to get to Whistler until some of the backup clears.

“We’re doing our best here, but until they move some of the cars for the ferry out of the way, the highway is getting jammed, he said.

“Police are here trying to manage this as best we can, but it’s so congested we’re trying to keep the exits open and trying to keep people moving, but nobody’s going to be getting down into the ferry terminal without a reservation.”

We have spoken to drivers stuck in backups on the Upper Levels Highway, including Sherry, who was turned around last night and again this morning trying to get the BC Ferries sailing from Horseshoe Bay to Langdale.

“We weren’t going to wait six hours before we could even get on a ferry that we don’t even know for sure we can get on,” Sherry said.

“So I was just trying to find a way to get out of there, and I ran into another woman who had a reservation for the 7:30 ferry this morning, but there was no way that they could get their vehicle up to the toll to get through the reservation line.”

Tsawwassen terminal is not experiencing issues to the same degree.

Listen live to 1130 NewsRadio Vancouver every :09 for ferry updates and every 10 minutes on the ones for traffic updates. You can also follow us on X @NewsRadioVan and subscribe to Traffic Alerts sent directly to your inbox.

— With files from Dean Recksiedler and Mike Lloyd.