Greenline is built around the core philosophy that people in coastal communities should be able to move from the center of one community to another, without having to make time- consuming detours through faraway terminals. That way, a greater number of people can have a seamless journey and reach their final destination – whether it’s a medical office, a stadium sports game, or another popular venue – through walking or public transit.
As our team has been working for the past two years to gather all the pieces for our new passenger-only ferry service, one of our most complex challenges has been to find a suitable place to land in downtown Vancouver. As we’ve learned, Vancouver’s waterfront is a very busy place. Many privately-owned sections of the waterfront are unavailable or are fraught with access challenges. Some other sites are handling their full capacity and aren’t able to accommodate further passenger throughput.
But after exhaustive investigation and more than a dozen meetings around the city, our team has set its sights on an excellent Vancouver landing site: the city-owned dock at Harbour Green Park.
We’re excited about this landing site because it’s a beautiful, accessible site that would need minimal modifications to accommodate the Greenline boats. Greenline and its partners would pay for these changes so there’s no cost – only benefits – to individual city residents.
The Harbour Green Park would remain unchanged, and the dock would stay open and accessible to the public.
A charging facility for our boats, similar to an electric vehicle charging port, would be installed on a new dock segment. BC Hydro and Greenline have been working together since September on an innovative charging solution for marine vessels.
Greenline boats are compact and quiet, so the view and the soundscape will be largely unaffected.
The Greenline boats would arrive seven times per day, with four journeys from Gibsons and three from Bowen Island.
Each Greenline boat would offload about the same number of passengers as a city bus, and most of these passengers would walk on paved pathways toward the downtown and transit.
Greenline has also been engaging with the local First Nations throughout the planning and is committed to understanding their interests and mitigating their concerns.
Greenline is working with mayors, councillors, and commissioners in all three communities –Vancouver, Gibsons, and Bowen Island – along with provincial and federal representative to work together on this important site. As soon as this falls into place, we’ll be positioned to place an order for our custom electric vessels to be built, with service expected to start in 2027.
Sign up to our newsletter to hear about our progress!