Vaughn Palmer: B.C. Ferries running out of excuses

VICTORIA — An already troubled summer for B.C. Ferries turned farcical this week when a website post claimed “a nine-sailing wait” for service to Vancouver Island out of Tsawwassen terminal.

The posting dominated the morning news on Tuesday until someone at the ferry service noticed and called to say it wasn’t true.

More like a one-sailing wait, if that. So said Karen Johnston, the mid-level communications staffer who was the ferry service’s designated excuse-maker for the day.

Johnston explained that the booking system “assumes that all customers are going to show up for their reservations.” It went into overload at Tsawwassen “when about 10 to 20 per cent of customers didn’t show.”

In short, it was the fault of the customers.