# Canadian Dopers: Why are the ferries so expensive? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 8, 2013, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-dopers-why-are-the-ferries-so-expensive/670674 "2013-10-08T13:09:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-dopers-why-are-the-ferries-so-expensive/670674/21 "2013-10-09T03:19:14Z")
I’m pretty sure capitalistic supply and demand comes into play here too. If there was less demand the cost would be lower. Apparently there is sufficient demand to maintain the current cost structure. Plain and simple. ---
**Author:** ![48Willys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/db5fbb/32.png) [@48Willys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/48Willys)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-dopers-why-are-the-ferries-so-expensive/670674/22 "2013-10-09T07:31:54Z")
> [@sitchensis](#): > > Yes, that’s why I recommended a different option for each city. Vancouver has really good mass transit. Victoria has cheap rental cars. > > The round trip ferry ride for a car is $100, a rental is $45 for the weekend. Depending on how many days you will be spending in Victoria that may be cost effective. OK, how much to ride the ferry as a walk-on passenger? I took my 1970 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser and 4 people over to Vancouver Island (Victoria, B.C.) about 15 years ago. We spent one week there. Ferrying the Oldsmobile and ourselves cost less then if we were to walk-on the ferry and rent a car. I did not figure out how much it would have cost to just park the Vista Cruiser in Seattle or Bremerton . The budget was already blown with the car rental. BTW we went from Seattle to Victoria/Vancouver Island to Bremerton. ---
**Author:** ![Habeed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a587f6/32.png) [@Habeed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Habeed)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-dopers-why-are-the-ferries-so-expensive/670674/23 "2013-10-09T09:14:17Z")
Fascinating. If you factor in the 54% government subsidy for the Seattle Ferry, and increase the fee by the relative difference in mileage (24 miles versus 16), you end up that the Seattle Ferry “should” cost $94, if you were paying the cost upfront without government subsidies, and it had to go 24 miles. Apparently, the Vancouver -\> Victoria Ferry operators are charging a fair price. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-dopers-why-are-the-ferries-so-expensive/670674/24 "2013-10-09T14:21:50Z")
So, does that boil down to The State of Washington being more socialist, and BC being more market-governed? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-dopers-why-are-the-ferries-so-expensive/670674/25 "2013-10-09T14:29:54Z")
> [@Habeed](#): > > Fascinating. If you factor in the 54% government subsidy for the Seattle Ferry, and increase the fee by the relative difference in mileage (24 miles versus 16), you end up that the Seattle Ferry “should” cost $94, if you were paying the cost upfront without government subsidies, and it had to go 24 miles. > > Apparently, the Vancouver -\> Victoria Ferry operators are charging a fair price. Except your logic is very wrong. Gas and maybe maintainance can be scaled that way but spending $100,000 on a ferry that goes 6 miles does not mean I have to spend $150,000 for a ferry that goes 9 miles and pay for an 8 hour day should be the same no matter how far the ferry travels or how many runs it makes in that 8 hours. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-dopers-why-are-the-ferries-so-expensive/670674/26 "2013-10-09T14:35:11Z")
> [@48Willys](#): > > OK, how much to ride the ferry as a walk-on passenger? Don’t forget that the ferry doesn’t run from Vancouver to Victoria. As a walk-on, you have to take a bus from Vancouver to the ferry terminal, and then after the transit you have to take a bus from the other terminal to downtown Victoria. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-dopers-why-are-the-ferries-so-expensive/670674/27 "2013-10-09T14:35:14Z")
> [@48Willys](#): > > OK, how much to ride the ferry as a walk-on passenger? [15/person](http://www.bcferries.com/files/fares/pdf_format/BCF_Fares.pdf). The Anacortes ferry to Vancouver Island is [~90 for three people and a car](http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries/pdf/CurrentFares.pdf) so that’s an option as well. It’s been a few years since I’ve gone to Victoria or Nanaimo - but they seem less like commuter ferries than the Seattle-Bremerton ferry is. ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-dopers-why-are-the-ferries-so-expensive/670674/28 "2013-10-09T14:38:44Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Except your logic is very wrong. > Gas and maybe maintainance can be scaled that way but spending $100,000 on a ferry that goes 6 miles does not mean I have to spend $150,000 for a ferry that goes 9 miles and pay for an 8 hour day should be the same no matter how far the ferry travels or how many runs it makes in that 8 hours. The total pay ‘no matter how many runs it makes in that 8 hours’ isn’t the factor that’s most relevant to the passenger cost, it seems to me. If the average pay per trip is more, then that’s a higher labour cost that is eventually passed on to all the passengers on the ferry for that trip. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-dopers-why-are-the-ferries-so-expensive/670674.md?page=1)