quote:
Cross-lake ferry service floated again
Group ignores ghosts of financial grief, plans crossings between Toronto and Niagara as early as summer
By Paul Legall
February 6, 2006St. Catharines -- Dale Wilson is either Captain Courageous or the skipper on the Ship of Fools.
The Toronto entrepreneur is planning to launch a hovercraft ferry service between Toronto and St. Catharines or Niagara-on-the-Lake as early as the summer.
A graduate of the London School of Economics and principal in Hover Transit Services, Wilson realizes he'll be sailing against the prevailing winds of history with the project.
In the last 20 years, all previous attempts to run a ferry service across Lake Ontario have ended in financial grief. Earlier this month, the city of Rochester announced it would be scuttling its high-speed service to Toronto after forking out $32 million to purchase an Australian-built catamaran from a private operator last year.
Operating costs and low ridership turned the ambitious project into a $40-million failure after only 11 weeks of service last year. The city is now trying to resell the luxurious vessel.
"I know history is against us," Wilson said before listing three other ferry projects that had run aground. They included a hovercraft in the mid 1980s, a hydrofoil in 2001 and a small catamaran in 2000-2001.
But he believes Rochester's demise has opened a wider window of opportunity for his own project.
"We're centre stage now. There's light at the end of the tunnel," he said in a telephone interview.
He suggested the Rochester ferry was doomed to fail because the massive ship -- which could accommodate 775 passengers and 225 cars -- was too costly to keep afloat. The fuel costs alone were prohibitive, he said.
By contrast, his 33-metre craft would have a seating capacity of only 155 with no cars and would whip passengers across the lake in 20 to 35 minutes up to three times a day. The service would cater to Toronto commuters, tourists and day trippers who want to take in dinner or some cultural event in another city. The trip would cost $12 to $15.
Wilson suggested Niagara and Toronto are each losing millions in tourist dollars because visitors don't want to make the two-hour car trip between them. With a 25-minute water link, he expects tourist traffic would increase dramatically.
At some point, he would also like to establish a ferry service to Youngstown, New York, for Canadians who want to take advantage of cheap flights between Buffalo and Florida.
Wilson said he offered to provide a cheaper hovercraft service to Rochester last year, but the offer was dismissed. Wilson is hopeful the city will reconsider his proposal.
Wilson estimated it will cost about $10 million to put his boat in Lake Ontario. He said he has raised about 70 per cent of the funds from private investors so far and he's negotiating with Toronto and Niagara for landing sites.
Wilson said he would expect the municipalities to provide free docking facilities, which he considers part of the municipal transportation infrastructure that includes airports and train stations. But he hasn't received any commitments from authorities.
St. Catharines Mayor Tim Rigby said he hasn't studied the Hover Transit Services proposal but supports a cross-lake ferry service in principle.
"I think it's an answer to some of the problems we have," he said referring to the heavy vehicular traffic in the Golden Horseshoe.
"Using the water as a medium to travel on does make a lot of sense," he recently told the local newspaper.
The Hamilton Spectator