The ferry between Matane, By-Comou and Godbout on the North Shore has been suspended since Tuesday. In a recent episode of a long series of interruptions that occurred over several years, this new interruption provoked consumer outrage.
Posted 7:34 pm
Passengers contacted on the spot do not hide their fatigue, says Danny Collin, who travels by ferry every year. “He has problems all the time. We’m not surprised when it’s at Quay, we’m surprised when it’s gone!”, He lamented.
The ferry was unable to handle daily travel on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Passengers and vehicles were on the bridge around 9:30 a.m. Tuesday when crossings were announced to be postponed. “They told us to wait until the afternoon to get more information and find out if the ferry was leaving at 2pm, but it never left,” Danny Collin said.
The Society des Traversiers du Quebec (STQ) said it had identified the source of the break-up after scheduled maintenance overnight from Monday to Tuesday. Simon Laboissonier, communications manager at STQ, explained that “the update attempt by an external team could cause problems with the interconnection of various electronic components.” The problem has been detected and we are waiting for the component to be replaced. ⁇
This breakdown was not the first for the ferry F.-A.- GautierIt is known for the large number of malfunctions observed since its delivery in 2015. In particular, it experienced a 13-month interruption in service between 2018 and 2020 and in its place, the ship Apollo, Scraped after just 17 days of service. Successive breaks of F.-A.- Gautier He was presented with the Lemon Award last year by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation for flagging wasteful government spending.
After a mandatory technical shutdown of the ship, the ferry was put back into service just three weeks ago. Sarema-1 Confirmed the relationship between Matane and the North Shore.
In the question “Public service”
Danny Collin, who resides within an hour’s drive from Matane, had to send someone to pick him up in the car. Others were not so lucky, Mary-Ange Bariault, was returning from a sailing trip with her son and had to rent a hotel room for the night.
She was suffering from diabetes and was unable to take medication. Rather than break up, she laments the lack of initiative of the Society des Traversiers du Quebec: “After 24 hours of navigation, we are tired. They threw us out without even giving us coffee or lunch […] We were able to arrange to order at the restaurant, but I think of all the people who could not do that ”
“They took us for rubbish,” Danny Collin adds. Passengers will be refunded for their ticket, but no catering or accommodation solution will be provided by STQ.
The explanation given by the employees on the site is essentially due to the lack of means. “They told us it’s a public service and they can do nothing about it. But when the plane crashes, we pay for hotels, we pay for lunch., There, they ask us to land,” sighed Mary-Ange Barriolt. It is a two-hour boat ride between Rimowski and Forestville.
Arrived midway through Wednesday afternoon, the STQ Communications manager suggested replacing the missing part. F.-A.- Gautier Was happening during the evening. Whether the crossings will continue on Thursday remains uncertain, the company announced on Twitter.
About The Author
