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Post: TTC to study fast ferries

EnviroTO said:
Well if there is one part of Hume's piece that I agree with is that it would anchor the waterfront in the psyche of Torontonians. With only smaller Harbourfront events on the waterfront and the rare trip on a dinner cruise or to the island, there isn't much that draws the average Torontonian to the waterfront on a regular basis. Summer weekends it is busy but beyond that it is relatively quiet on the waterfront. If busses in Scarborough and Etobicoke made a convenient connection to a frequent ferry it would definitely bring year round crowds to the water's edge and therefore bring more retail and other amenities feeding itself in a loop. It wouldn't be the most efficient transit system though and perhaps there are better ways to draw people to the waterfront besides necessary transit connections. A waterfront east and west streetcar with connections to the Queensway line and Kingston Rd will do a little bit but it wouldn't force people out of the vehicle at the water's edge like a commuter ferry would. A waterfront building excercise perhaps, but I doubt it would be the best improvement if the goal is to simply provide quick and efficient transit.
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Slightly off topic.... I was at the harbourfront last night for dinner and it was hopping!!! The restaurants were packed and there were tones of people mulling about enjoying the evening. So nice to see that people are attracted to the waterfront now. bit by bit it is getting better...
 
Such idiot idea and totally waste of our money! They can't even do the land transportation right, now they want to do the ferries??
 
^No offense, but is there anything you like?

Have you ever sat down on a sofa like Woody Allen in Manhattan with a recording device in your hand and asked yourself what brings joy to your life, only to draw blanks?
 
It's a pretty typical Toronto reaction. Any idea that doesn't slowly, over decades, bubble up from the TTC bureaucracy is idiotic, and any person who suggests it is a moron. It's dismissed as pie-in-the-sky, unreasonable, and completely impossible, never failing to ignore the dozens of other similar cities around the world that do it.
 
No. If he suggested a molecular transporter or a city-provided personal Humvee for everyone in Scarborough, it would merit this derision. Fast ferries are a successful mode of transit in countless waterfront cities around the world. Even if they don't turn out to be appropriate for this particular application, the mere suggestion doesn't merit such a reaction.
 
Can't it just be that it is idiotic?
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Exactly. Every other city that has commuter ferries has something at the other side of a bay or inlet, or river, that makes water inherently the fastest way from A to B. The three ferry systems that are part of a transit system that I've rode - New York, Halifax and Vancouver, have this. On the other side, there isn't a reliance on a parking lot, except Halifax's secondary Dartmouth terminal, which is rush-hours only.

Sydney, San Francisco, Boston also have commuter ferries, but there it makes sense, the Harbour or SF Bay.

Chicago would be the closest I can think of in terms of metro area on a lake, and they don't have a ferry system to Rogers Park, Gary, Hammond, Evanston, Kenosha, etc. Philly doesn't have ferries up and down the Delaware River either.
 
So, it's only idiotic if it's essentially impossible? If it's possible but completely ignores the realities of the city's geography and climate from a elected official we should all provide it with complete respect?
 
I'm not sure what you mean by complete respect, but no, I don’t think the idea should be dismissed without consideration and accompanied with denunciation of the person who dared suggest it. Sydney has ferries along its harbour (not just across) and London has ferries along the Thames, just to name a few. I understand that it probably wouldn’t be successful in Toronto (especially by the TTC’s extremely narrow definition of success) but I see absolutely nothing wrong with suggesting new ideas.

Honestly, if Torontonians were running London in the 19th century, whoever suggested trains running under the ground would have been run out of town (or perhaps into an asylum).

I agree with Steve Munro in his last post about the TTC's extreme "not invented here" syndrome.
 
Ferries to Scarborough would be abominably stupid, especially because of having to go around the Spit, but ferries to places west of downtown need not be automatically dismissed - the ride is much shorter and there's actually stuff near the waterfront other than bluffs and a few mansions. Methinks it'd still be a novelty ride, though.
 
Although some people will always take it to the extreme, as far as I've seen most responses have been in line with Scarberian's comment.

Honestly, if Torontonians were running London in the 19th century, whoever suggested trains running under the ground would have been run out of town (or perhaps into an asylum).
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I'm sure plenty of people in 19th century London thought Charles Pearson was mad. He had proposed dozens of different schemes before the Metropolitan Railway got approved. They certainly had major issues with steam locomotive exhaust until electrification happened. But when it's a private enterprise paid for with private money, who cares what people think?
 
when it's a private enterprise paid for with private money, who cares what people think?
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Or, sometimes even when other taxpayers foot the bill but not necessarily us. For example, I thought that the ferry to Rochester (oh look, another ferry!) was a stupid idea that was doomed to fail - and it did - but since it was paid by the good people of the Empire State, I really didn't care two ways about it.
 
You'd think Giambrone would have more important things to worry about than useless ferries, though.
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Like getting re-elected. His fun and games on Lansdowne has managed to piss many people off.

As for the ferries, why would a seemingly periodic mode of transportation be deemed more realistic than a rail route or a subway?
 
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