BC Ferries Schedules 2026

BC Ferries connects the British Columbia coast — Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands, the Sunshine Coast and the northern communities — on one of the largest ferry networks in the world.

It tells you what the terminal looks like right now

Before you drive to a sailing you can check current conditions by route, actual departures and arrivals, live vessel tracking, and terminal webcams showing the holding lanes. On a route where a full sailing means two hours until the next one, seeing the queue matters more than reading the timetable.

Two cards, two different problems

The Experience Card is a prepaid discount card for frequent travellers. The Assured Loading Card solves something else entirely: it guarantees space on a sailing for people who cannot risk being left behind — commercial drivers and residents with appointments to keep.

What you can bring

The company publishes separate guidance for foot passengers, cyclists, drivers, pets, luggage, livestock and dangerous goods, plus accessibility provision — an unusually complete list that reflects a fleet carrying farm animals and fuel trucks alongside tourists.

Booking

Reservations split into personal, commercial, group and travel-agent channels, with bookable deck space on some routes. There is a fare calculator, gift certificates, and an app carrying schedules, conditions and bookings together.

The scale of it

BC Ferries moves close to 23 million passengers, 10 million vehicles and $8 billion in cargo a year across 47 terminals with 37 vessels and more than 5,000 staff. The company describes its routes as lifelines rather than services, and on much of the coast that is literal — for many communities there is no road alternative at all.

How much of the deck you can actually book

Reservable space is set route by route, and the percentages are published. On Tsawwassen–Swartz Bay and Tsawwassen–Duke Point, between 70% and 90% of vehicle deck space is bookable, averaging 85%. Horseshoe Bay–Langdale is deliberately looser at 30% to 70%, averaging 65%, keeping more room for drive-up traffic. Comox–Powell River sits at 65–85%.

One direction where driving up no longer works

Travelling by vehicle from Horseshoe Bay to Nanaimo (Departure Bay) requires booking and paying in advance — drive-up fares have been withdrawn on that leg. The reverse direction, Departure Bay to Horseshoe Bay, still runs on the standard 70–90% model. It is the same crossing with two different rulebooks depending on which way you are pointed.

Fully bookable routes, and the space held back

Four routes sell 100% of their space in advance: Port Hardy–Prince Rupert, Prince Rupert–Haida Gwaii, Port Hardy–Bella Coola, and Tsawwassen–Southern Gulf Islands. These sail infrequently enough that a missed departure can mean waiting hours or days. Even so, roughly 5 to 10 vehicle spaces are held on every such sailing for emergencies — police in active pursuit, utility crews responding to an outage, fire crews heading to a fire. Unused, that space goes to standby passengers.

A quarter of bookings may not show

The company states that 5–25% of customers who book in advance do not turn up, which is why bookable percentages are set above the space that actually sails as booked.

Ships named in the languages of the coast

Much of the newer fleet carries First Nations names, written with their own orthography: Island G̲wawis, Island Kwigwis, Island K'ulut'a, Island Nagalis, Island x̌wsa̓lux̌ul, Pune'luxutth, Kwuna, Tachek, Klitsa, Kahloke. They run alongside the older Queen and Spirit classes.