Show and tell your city's ferries

[Cirrus]

Alright you know the drill here. Does your city have ferries? Show us some photos and tell us about them here.

What qualifies: "Ferries" for the purposes of this thread are boats that are open to the public to ride (either free or for a fare) for the purpose of traveling between two or more points within your city's metropolitan area. Cruise ships, yachts, tour boats, etc do not qualify.

[Cirrus]

For Washington, DC:

There aren't a huge number of ferries, but they do exist. There are three categories, with a fourth frequently discussed.

Category 1: Water taxis from The Wharf.

The Wharf is a big new waterfront development just south of the National Mall. From there, these big yellow water taxis go to other waterfront destinations including Georgetown, Alexandria, the baseball stadium, and the National Harbor town center development in nearby Maryland. Boats leave something like hourly.




Category 2: Jitney at The Wharf.

Also at that same waterfront, this tiny little boat goes back and forth across Washington Channel (the narrow body of water pictured) between the busy waterfront and the park across the way. There's only one boat, which goes back and forth on-demand. The trip only takes a couple of minutes and is free. It is the most convenient way to get to the park via transit.




Category 3: Alexandria-to-National Harbor water taxis.

These are a few years older and go between Alexandria and National Harbor in Maryland. They come something like hourly.




Category 4: Long distance commuter ferries.

From time to time someone thinks it would make sense to have commuter ferries to DC from the far southern suburbs in Virginia. So far none have happened.

[MonkeyRonin]

Cool, didn't know DC had ferries.

Toronto has four public ferry routes between the mainland and the islands, with a fleet of vehicles built between 1935 and 2009. They primarily serve recreational visitors going to the parks & beaches, but there are also a small number of permanent residents, as well as a ~120m ferry to the island airport.




https://www.flickr.com/photos/sebast...047508/sizes/l


https://www.blogto.com/city/2013/06/...sland_ferries/


The new Jack Layton Ferry Terminal, set to open in a few years:

[Lakelander]

In Jacksonville, there's the St. Johns River Taxi and the Mayport Ferry. The St. Johns River Taxi links the Downtown Northbank with the Downtown Southbank. It operates on a 30 minute headway, stopping at several destinations, hotels, parks and museums on both sides of the river.






The Mayport Ferry (St Johns River Ferry) is an auto ferry near the Mayport shrimp fleet and the mouth of the St. Johns River. It connects to segments of State Road A1A along the Atlantic Ocean. Without it, a trip by car would be a detour around 45 minutes or so to drive into town to take the Dames Point Bridge (I-295) and back out to the coast.

[LMich]

Would the Detroit-Windsor Truck Ferry qualify? Fares are $30-$115 per standard truck depending on the type of truck it is. Special vehicles cost more. It runs 5 trips each way per day.


STORMONT - LAC ST. JEAN 011012 by mile27, on Flickr

Every passenger and truck has to pass customs just like at any border crossing.

[mrnyc]

for cleveland, far as i know unfortunately there is no regular service to the islands, canada or buffalo. its talked about often though, maybe it will happen someday. in particular, there is a former maine ferry sitting in mothballs awaiting someone to start up a cleveland-port stanley route, but nothing is going on with that.


however, in town cleveland's cuyahoga river water taxi is free again this year. it had 47k rides last summer, so its popular, although no doubt being free helps. maybe they can add more routes in the future as they rebuild up the flats.

http://www.cleveland19.com/story/381...he-2018-season


also, there is a long running local regular cruise line that goes up the river and out in the lake. i haven't been on it in eons, but its very nice and everybody enjoys it -- recommended!

https://goodtimeiii.com/site/

[bnk]

Chicago water Taxis

There is not one formal type of taxis they come in all sizes and there is competition From Shorline but Chicago Water Taxi is the busiest.

http://www.chicagowatertaxi.com/

Pretty cheap too.



All Day Pass
$9.00

31 Day Pass
$60.00

Ten Ride
$20.00

One Way Ticket
$5.00

[Steely Dan]

chicago has two water taxi services.


Chicago Water Taxi has scheduled service to 7 different stops on the river from march to november. this one is more oriented to commuters.


source: https://www.chicagoriver.org/events/...i-with-friends




Shoreline Water Taxi has scheduled service to 3 different stops on the river, and has a separate lake service that connects navy pier with the museum campus. they run from may-september and are more oriented to sightseers/tourists.


source: http://www.destination360.com/north-...ago-water-taxi

[bnk]

Had a couple of min head start on you.

As for Milwaukee They have a great Ferry that crosses Lake Michigan to Muskegon Michigan I take that one almost every summer.

The Lake Express. You bring your car/truck/motorcycles with you. Just 2.5 hours from coast to coast. That thing gets cursing chief. Being top board at full speed is a rush.

The ship travels at a top speed of 34 knots (39 mph; 63 km/h) and makes the 68-nautical-mile (78 mi; 126 km) trip three times daily from each side of the lake during the peak of its operational schedule

Saves time and is a relaxing way to get to Michigan from the North Burbs.



https://www.lake-express.com/schedule/

https://www.lake-express.com/experience/






And if you don't want to be with the unwashed masses you can get a first class seating in the premium seating area.


Passengers can enjoy snacks, beverages, and light meals available at the café counter



• Video Link




Tonnage:
1,757 GT

Length:
191 ft 7 in (58.40 m)

Beam:
57 ft 9 in (17.60 m)

Draught:
8 ft 2 in (2.50 m)

Installed power:
4 × MTU 16V 4000 M70 diesel engines

Propulsion:
4 × Kamewa waterjets

Speed:
34 kn (39 mph; 63 km/h)

Capacity:
248 passengers
44 cars & 12 motorcycles



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSC_Lake_Express










There is another ferry further north from US 10, Ludington, Michigan–Manitowoc, Wisconsin. I don't use that one. Its slower and pollutes Lake Michigan more.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Badger

https://www.ssbadger.com/




SS Badger connects the eastern and western segments of US 10, shown here in red.

[Steely Dan]

^ yep. funny that we posted the same exact pic for shoreline.

and as far as i know, Lake Express and SS Badger are the only two ferries that completely cross one of the great lakes.

there was apparently a cross-lake ferry on lake ontario from toronto to rochester years ago, but it is no more.

[Cirrus]

I was thinking this for DC, but the Chicago pics really confirm it: Yellow is a way better color than white for these. Somehow the yellow reads as legit transit to me, while the white reads as a lame ye olde boate ryde.

[JManc]

Houston proper does not have one (that I know of) and the only prominent ferry in the area is the Galveston-Port Bolivar ferry which travels between Galveston and the Bolivar peninsula.



The Woodlands has a water taxi:

[initiald]

North Carolina operates the second largest state-owned ferry system in the United States (behind Washington state I beleive) with 21 ferry vessels that serve seven routes with over 200 daily sailings.

However, no major cities are served by ferry.

[mousquet]

There's just no ocean or sea at all over here, so Paris is off-topic in this thread, but here goes anyway.
We only have barges that fit navigation on the Seine river.

Beside those shipping some construction and raw materials over the metro area, the better known are probably those called "bateaux mouches" to let visitors check on some historic landmarks and architecture of the central city from the river.

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bateaux_Mouches

I think this is a must-do on most tourist guides, so those of you guys who already came here might have heard of it.

There's also what they call "Batobus", a shuttle service with 9 stops along the river.

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

The Batobus serves the following stops: Beaugrenelle/Île aux Cygnes, Eiffel Tower, Musée d'Orsay, Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Notre-Dame, Jardin des Plantes, Hôtel de Ville, Louvre, and Champs-Élysées.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batobus

Whoa, I'd simply never heard of this before! It seems just about the same as bateaux mouches, but more flexible for letting you get off a boat at their stations.
Here's their site for more info if you're curious: http://www.batobus.com/en.html#
It replaced a larger scale public project that was eventually canceled.

Generally speaking, the river's been somewhat underused in contemporary time.
Nevertheless, it is now depolluted, no longer used as a dumping ground.
That allowed at least some 30 species of fish to come back here, and brings opportunities for leisure developments.
Not in Central Paris cause it'd still be full of poop (ew, some sewers must still dump the people's crap there), and it's unsafe anyway. Some streams are tricky to deal with, and you may drown in there.
But it is feasible over some suburbs. I heard of a project of a large leisure center that would involve several western suburban municipalities, including Carrières-Sous-Poissy for instance, where there are proper conditions.

Now regarding transit proper, not sure how relevant or convenient it would be. Some say it's too slow compared to commuter trains or the subway.
There's nonetheless some projects to further redevelop some river transit, like these gadgets they call SeaBubbles.

• Video Link

Bon, it doesn't look like any serious mass transit option (lol), but it could be much fun. Again, mostly for leisure, I assume.
I think several cities in the world are actually interested, including Paris.

That's about it.

[The Chemist]

Shanghai Ferries:



There are 18 ferry lines in Shanghai, of which 3 run 24 hours a day. They are used for crossing the Huangpu River with 2 wheeled vehicles (bicycles, electric scooters, gas scooters, motorcycles) as these vehicles are not permitted on Shanghai's bridges (which are almost all freeway bridges) or in Shanghai's tunnels. So the ferry is the only way to cross the river in this case.

Some less busy lines operate with only one ferry (which results in a frequency of about 1 trip every 30 minutes in each direction) while busy lines may have up to 3 ferries in operation at any time.

[jd3189]

NYC has the Staten Island Ferry.


https://freetoursbyfoot.com/staten-island-ferry/



http://www.bigapplesecrets.com/2014/...e-ride-in.html




http://amolife.com/en/top-10-staten-...york-pictures/



I believe it's free and I rode it once at night. It's alright.

[llamaorama]

Originally Posted by JManc

Houston proper does not have one (that I know of) and the only prominent ferry in the area is the Galveston-Port Bolivar ferry which travels between Galveston and the Bolivar peninsula.



The Woodlands has a water taxi:

What, no lynchburg ferry?

Still not exactly city of Houston, but almost

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynchburg_Ferry

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Cirrus

I was thinking this for DC, but the Chicago pics really confirm it: Yellow is a way better color than white for these. Somehow the yellow reads as legit transit to me, while the white reads as a lame ye olde boate ryde.

agreed.

the yellow/black scheme of Chicago Water Taxi conveys a sense of no-nonsense transportation.

the red/white/blue scheme of Shoreline Water Taxi conveys a sense of amusement park ride.


even the individual boat names in the two competing fleets convey different levels of seriousness:

Chicago water taxi boat names: "Alpha", "Bravo", "Sunliner", "Wendella"

Shoreline water taxi boat names: "Skedaddle", "ASAP", "Giddy Up", "Shake-a-Leg", "Lickety Split", "Gotta Go Now"

[mousquet]

The yellow + black pattern reminds of NYC's cabs, doesn't it? Hence a scheme that relates more to everyday-life functional codes than to leisure.
The latter shouldn't be neglected, though. People are no slaves and can't work 24/24, 365.25 days a year.

Very nice freshwater color in Chicago by the way. Someone here made me notice that if the Great Lakes were located on the same latitude as Texas, they would be invaded by tourists like it could end up exhausting to locals.

Although I wouldn't complain about tourists. I never understood why people would bash them while everybody sometimes happens to be a tourist, and they spend money for one's town.
Tourism is certainly a very fine industry.

[Cirrus]

Originally Posted by mousquet

Very nice freshwater color in Chicago by the way.

They dye their river green sometimes, just for fun.


Natasha J via flickr