According to the North Shore Outlook Translink has announced a pilot project for a passenger only ferry serving Bowen Island to Downtown with a stop in West Vancouver. This was the most recommended option in the Harbour Passenger Marine Study done by Translink in 2004.

I think this is a great idea. Using the high speed ferry technology that is now available is a great way to get people off the roads and into a quick, comfortable mass transit. There are so many commuters that do this commute each day, that there is a reasonable potential.

It should be noted that the Vancouver Bid Book included a ferries from both the Vancouver airport and downtown to Squamish as part of the transportation planning. Presumably ferries purchased for the Olympics could be made available after or before for this service. The timing is about right. We will presume that it will take about a year to get the pilot project going and then they probably want to run it for about 2 years. That would mean finishing in about 2008. Just enough time to decide whether Translink wants to build the ships for the Olympics so that they can use them on this run, or whether they just bring in a contract ship to do it... Just speculation of course...