In Portugal Cove, the lines for the ferry — and travellers' frustrations — are growing

Last week, on a sunny Thursday afternoon, as the MV Legionnaire motored away from the wharf in Portugal Cove-St. Philip's, a long line of cars was already waiting for the next boat, one hour before its departure.

It's not an uncommon sight for travellers this summer, as ferry users have been dealing with long wait times, delays and mechanical issues. 

Elaine Bickford of Conception Bay South was one traveller waiting in the long line on Thursday evening. Bickford, who uses the ferry to visit her family on Bell Island, says the wait times deter her from returning home more often. 

"I hate waiting for the boat like this, I can't see why they don't have the boats going, one going, one coming… especially this time of year," she said.

Bickford requires an elevator but the one on board has been out of service recently, she says. She wishes there was better communication and more help getting back down to the lower vehicle deck. 

"Just makes you fed up," she said. "I had to take the stairs but my knees are not too good."

Terry Hussey of Bell Island, who uses the ferry almost every day to go to work, says service this summer has been "hit and miss."

"It's almost a coin toss every day on how it's going to operate," said Hussey. 

He says summer tourism has been affecting his commute. 

"It just makes it a little bit more difficult for anybody that's working to stay on a steady flow back and forth," said Hussey.

Emergency trips at night can also delay the boat in the morning, because crews must take a six-hour break, according to Hussey.

"There's quite a few times we come down in the morning to try and go to work and we don't find out till we get down there that the boat's out of service for a couple of hours because it made an emergency run at night and nobody's bothered to update the online [schedule]," said Hussey.

PC transportation critic Jim McKenna says he has seen a lot of similar problems with Fogo Island ferry service. The biggest issues, he said, are communication with commuters and boat maintenance.  

"We're not informed of what's going on and, you know, there's no communication hardly whatsoever," said McKenna. "It's very dysfunctional. It's not working."