People are engaging with BC Ferries online this morning, but not in response to its engagement campaign that launched yesterday to get public feedback on the Swartz Bay Ferry Terminal.

That's because people are stuck in Tsawwassen Bay on the mainland side, with the BC Ferries media line ringing un answered and Twitter as their only means to try and understand the traffic.

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Crazy traffic at Tsawassen, trying to get on Gulf Islands ferry. Lines backed up onto the highway. Never seen anything like it. Will we miss our reservation? @BCFerries @cbcnewsbc @GlobalBC @starvancouver pic.twitter.com/Cr23KokXXc — Tessa Vikander❄️ (@TessaVikander) May 26, 2018

Like the Courier, Vikander, a reporter with StarMetro Vancouver, attempted to call the media line with no results. In her live tweets, she observed that the support staff were overwhelmed, and no one was relaying the issues to anxious people eager to start their weekend plans.

About 10-20 cars driving wrong way down the highway to skip lineup! #bcferries @BCFerries — Tessa Vikander❄️ (@TessaVikander) May 26, 2018

Because BC Ferries weren't answering the phone calls and tweets of upset travellers, others took to airing their frustrations on Vikander's feed.

@BCFerries and when the mayhem begins you stop answering he phones and replying to tweets. Very convenient. Not to mention you leave one poor person to deal with hundreds of angry people with no radio #badmanagement #lostcustomer #flyingfromnowon — P (@PPhoward12) May 26, 2018

By 9:30 a.m. people are still waiting in their cars to make a ferry reservation that was supposed to leave an hour ago.

@BCFerries we tried to call you and we pressed through to talk to someone and the automated message said “Thank you, bye” and HUNG UP. What is going on!? #bcferries #nothappy #noanswers — P (@PPhoward12) May 26, 2018

@BCFerries your upsetting a lot of non holiday travelers, the ones who take the ferry regularly, we pay your bills....only you can turn this to a positive... — MCHOWARD (@youngpuck) May 26, 2018

At this point, BC Ferries is investigating a problem with the propulsion control system and has cancelled a round trip later this afternoon.

#ServiceNotice #Tsawwassen - #SwartzBay #SpiritofVancouverIsland has cancelled an additional round trip as we continue to investigate the problem w/ the propulsion control system: 11:00am ex Swartz Bay & 1:00pm ex Tsawwassen. https://t.co/48GVFXXvvO ^kn — BC Ferries (@BCFerries) May 26, 2018

According to BC Ferries, passengers will be loaded onto the next available sailing time and reservation premiums with be refunded.

Updated service announcements can be found on BC Ferries website.

Thanks to Twitter, some off-the-clock reporting resulted in samaritans feeling advocated for and heard.

@TessaVikander I’m on the ferry. Not sure how this miracle happened. I can confirm their systems are down but they are holding the ferry back. The gate agent said I was the first person who’s name worked when pulling it up in the reservation system. Good luck! — P (@PPhoward12) May 26, 2018