This Sunday’s Boston Globe featured a column by Yvonne Abraham about the Lynn Ferry. It just started this past year. It’s been widely successful with the customers. It’s spurring economic development and increasing property values.
Not knowing a damn thing about this, it would seem to me that a ferry service from Watertown Square (just below the dam) to the Science Museum/MGH, with stops at possibly Harvard Square and Kendall Square would be a wonderful, and practical addition to our local transportation system. The new infrastructure to support a ferry should be fairly simple and modestly priced – a few boats, a few simple small docks.
Since I really don’t know a damn thing of which I speak, your job is to explain why that’s not in any way a practical plan …. or who knows, maybe it is.
To heck with the people who are going to tell you why this isn’t possible. Great idea. Could it connect with the bus depot over on Galen Street? How about off-season commuter parking at MDC skating rink work?
Sounds great to me. Parking is atrocious or requires taking out a second mortgage when going to any of those places, except the Science Museum and it would be quicker than the T with nice views along the way. As for it being feasible, I certainly don’t have a clue, but I like unicorns and ghosts too.
Possible? Yes. Practical? No.
The biggest limitation is speed. Boat speed in the basin is limited to 10 mph. A boat needs to reduce to no wake when approaching canoes, rowing shells and sailboats.
http://www.mass.gov/eea/docs/dcr/legal/3501200.pdf
As bad as traffic can be on the roads, it rarely moves that slowly.
I love the idea! But, I have a nagging feeling that it would have to be a very low boat due to bridge clearance?
@Chris: Maye instead of chairs it could have cots! Market it to new parents and other sleep deprived people.
I’m in as long as we don’t need to quack like ducks
Does the Charles freeze up enough to prevent boats that size from being used or could it plow right though it?
Well between the 10 MPH speed limit, the river freezing and the low bridges, maybe this isn’t a practical idea after all. I guess I’ll just have to go back to my Jetway plan – a Jet Pack sharing service 😉
…or a tunnel!
@Jerry, in some spots the speed limit drops down to 6 mph, and then once you pass the Longfellow Bridge it’s headway speed only. The ride would easily take an hour without stops. The Lynn Ferry transports passengers from Lynn to downtown in 35 minutes, and drops them at Central Wharf. If a ferry along the Charles were to pass into the inner harbor, you would have to add on a lot more time for travel through the locks. Nice for a recreational cruise, but as a commuter alternative, not so much.
A ferry originating in Watertown Square with a stop somewhere near the soon-to-be-redeveloped Arsenal (500+ residential units) could be significantly beneficial.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/regionals/west/2016/08/17/open-spaces-and-river-views-coming-arsenal-mall/mIFfyVHdAGi7Ad6MZ58FOL/story.html