TTC Looks at Using High Speed Ferries

Steve Munro gives a good summary of why the ttc should be concentrating on improving their existing service rather than experimenting with ferries.

http://www.stevemunro.ca/?p=439

A full Vaporetto service like in Venice waterways would be a good starting point. They travel fast, in shallow water, with multiple stops along the way. The Don can be used as another waterway for north/southbound traffic and another reason to clean it up. Also it might be a catalyst to speed up waterfront development.

High speed river ferries were my preferred mode of public transport in Bangkok. They're brilliant!

I personally like this idea quite a bit. Then again, I am in favour of building the city out into Lake Ontario on cheesy-looking islands like in Dubai, so don't ask me about the lake.

Don't believe this for one second. The economics of ferries simply do not work unless you have a massive demand and some serious physical barriers that ideally prevent competing transit routes. The ferries in New York are $6 for the same route that a competing subway service (PATH) charges $1.50 for, and they struggle to survive as a result. Many routes that tried to simply provide an express along the river did not make it because people will not take an infrequent ferry in the middle of winter when they can take a convenenient if crowded subway or bus instead. Ferries require massive subsidies to carry fewer people than a double-streetcar, they suck in bad weather and they are not easy to get to unless you happen to have a big dock right next to your CDB (which Toronto does not). The service in New York uses dozens of buses to try and get riders from the ferry dock to the office buildings -- thereby creating more congestion in those areas. Supplemental ferries just skim the 0.1% of commuters who are wealthy enough and snobby enough and have enough of a fixed schedule to take a ferry rather than the subway. A commuter ferry in Toronto is a silly, silly pipe dream. Try cutting half the stops on the Queen line and speeding up streetcar service instead.