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Letter: Consider ferry service in area

By William J. Gerow Jr., VANCOUVER
Published: June 18, 2017, 6:00am

Regarding ferry service in the Vancouver/Portland area, letter writer Joe Kooijman (“Go by water to get around,” Our Readers’ Views, June 14) may be interested to know that he doesn’t have to look overseas for an example of public transportation by water.

Chicago offers two regularly scheduled water transportation services. Although the boats are referred to as water taxis, they are actually more like buses, carrying dozens of people each. One line serves multiple points along the north, south and main branches of the Chicago River, including connections to both main train stations and several large employment locations (Merchandise Mart, Willis Tower, etc.).

These boats generally run every 15 to 30 minutes throughout the day and, at least during rush hours, serve mostly downtown workers commuting to and from work. The other water taxi service mostly delivers tourists to various attractions up and down the Lake Michigan waterfront. Both services are safe, reliable and cheap, but as one might expect they don’t run in the winter.

Both are private, profit-making enterprises. I imagine that to be profitable they would have to serve hundreds, if not thousands, of passengers every day — a consideration for the more modestly sized Vancouver/Portland metropolitan area.

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