Editing SeaBus (section)

== History ==
{{More citations needed|section|date=July 2017}}
[[File:Boarding North Vancouver ferry.jpg|thumb|Passengers boarding a North Vancouver Ferry at the Vancouver dock]]
[[File:North Vancouver Ferry No 2.jpg|thumb|''North Vancouver Ferry No. 2'']]
[[File:North Vancouver Ferry No 3.jpg|thumb|''North Vancouver Ferry No. 3'']]

The first regular service between the [[North Vancouver (city)|City of North Vancouver]] and [[Vancouver]] began in 1900 with the craft ''North Vancouver''. Three years later, the North Vancouver Ferry and Power Company was created, took over the existing service, and built a new craft called ''St. George''. These two ferries were later renamed ''North Vancouver Ferry No. 1'' and ''North Vancouver Ferry No. 2''. The City of North Vancouver took over the service in 1908 to provide a more reliable ferry connection with Downtown Vancouver. Soon after, another craft, ''North Vancouver Ferry No. 3'', was built. In 1936, the ''No. 2'' was retired and used as a [[logging]] camp on the west coast of [[Vancouver Island]] until it was destroyed by fire.

In 1938, the [[Lions Gate Bridge]] was completed, which significantly reduced demand for ferry service. However, there was an increase in demand with the onset of [[World War II]] because of the [[shipbuilding]] boom in North Vancouver.{{how|title=How would a general shipbuilding boom lead to a growth in demand for a specific ferry service?|date=July 2017}} This growth in business spurred the creation of a new ferry, the ''North Vancouver Ferry No. 5'', in 1941. The ''[[MV Crosline]]'' was also leased from [[Washington (state)|Washington]] to meet demand. According to James Barr, 1943 was the busiest year that North Vancouver Ferries had, ferrying over 7 million passengers across the [[Burrard Inlet]].

''North Vancouver No. 5'' was built in [[Coal Harbour]] by Boeing Shipyards in 1941. It ran faithfully with its Union Diesel until 1958 when it was tied up at the foot of Lonsdale Ave along with ''North Vancouver Ferry No. 4''. Jesse Oliver Kinnie, a North Vancouver Ferry employee, looked into the possibility of purchasing ''North Vancouver Ferry No. 4'' and running it on the same route as it had run all its life. It had a higher height clearance on the car deck than ''Ferry No. 5'' and was faster. The numbers did not add up and the plan was abandoned. ''Ferry No. 4'' also ran on a Union Diesel.

The ferries were in major decline by the 1950s. In 1948, the ''No. 3'' was taken off of regular service and was sold in 1953. The cost of operating the ferries was high, and the last sailing by the ''No. 4'' ferry took place on August 30, 1958. The ''No. 4'' was later sold to be used in [[Prince Rupert, British Columbia|Prince Rupert]]. Later, ''No. 4'' returned to Vancouver and was tied up on the Vancouver side of Burrard Inlet. It was in desperate need of a refit and had to be kept afloat with pumps to keep the water out of its hull. When the power failed and the pumps stopped it went to the bottom of the inlet. The ''No. 5'' was converted into the [[Seven Seas Restaurant]] at the foot of Lonsdale in North Vancouver. It remained there until 2002 when the City of North Vancouver and the federal courts had it demolished after a long-standing dispute over who would be responsible if it sank and concern that the hull was in danger of imminent collapse. In dry dock it proved to be quite sound, but at that point the decision had already been made to scrap it.

There were plans in the 1960s to build a tunnel under [[Burrard Inlet]] which would have connected to the proposed freeways on the Vancouver side. After the freeway plans in Vancouver were cancelled, the tunnel proposal was also abandoned, and the money originally slated for that project was instead redirected to re-establishing a passenger ferry service between Vancouver and the North Shore.<ref>{{cite book |title=Dream City: Vancouver and the Global Imagination |last=Berelowitz |first=Lance |year=2010 |publisher=Douglas & McIntyre |isbn=978-1-55365-170-3 |page=82 }}</ref> The ferry proposal was included in a 1975 report by the [[Greater Vancouver Regional District]],<ref>{{Cite report |author=Greater Vancouver Regional District |date=March 26, 1975 |title=The Livable Region 1976/1986 |url=https://metrovancouver.org/about-us/Documents/livable-region-1976-1986-proposals-to-manage-the-growth-of-greater-vancouver.pdf#page=24 |page=24}}</ref> and the current SeaBus ferries began operating the Waterfront Station–Lonsdale Quay route on June 17, 1977,<ref name="TL070615" /><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://pgnewspapers.pgpl.ca/fedora/repository/pgc:1977-06-20-02 |page=2 |work=[[Prince George Citizen]] |title=Vancouver's Sea-Bus Moves 15,000 People |date=20 Jun 1977}}</ref> initially as part of the Transportation Division of [[BC Hydro]]. For the first few years of service, the automated fare machines (the first in Vancouver's transit system) at the two SeaBus terminals printed an impression of the rider's coins onto a cash register-style receipt, which could become very long if fares were paid in small-denomination coins such as [[Penny (Canadian coin)|pennies]].