by Charles Simmins

Created on: February 23, 2010

The dream went something like this: Thousands of Canadians would love to travel to the Rochester, N.Y. area. Thousands of Americans would love to travel to Toronto, Canada. All of them would prefer to take a ferry along the shores of Lake Ontario rather than drive.

Thus was born the idea of a fast ferry connection between Rochester and Toronto. First proposed in 1998, it became a reality in 2004. And, within two years the dream had died.

What went wrong with Rochester's failed fast ferry?

The major defect in the planning for the ferry was the uncritical assumption that lots of people wanted to travel the route between Toronto and Rochester. Toronto has a great deal to offer, theaters, shopping, a major league baseball team. Rochester has some interesting sites, as well, though none on the scale of Toronto. As demonstrated by ticket sales, not enough people wanted to make the trip in either direction. Sellouts were rare, and the only real sure sales day was one where the Yankees played the Blue Jays in Toronto.

The second issue that killed the ferry was the failure to obtain rights to transport commercial truck traffic. The original concept had included commercial traffic but due to international issues, none was ever approved. Commercial traffic would have added a second revenue stream to the ferry.

Toronto never really bought in to the concept. A terminal with the necessary customs stations was delayed. Canadian customs fees and fuel costs were higher than planned. Because the ship was not flagged as a U.S. or Canadian vessel, it required a pilot for every entry into U.S. waters. Throughout its service on the lake, the ship itself suffered many engineering failures and several accidents that took it out of service for trips or weeks at a time.

There are, and were, some very interesting questions asked about how all the money involved was handled. An audit by the New York State Comptroller was very critical of the financial oversight of the project by the city of Rochester. The original operators went out of business. The City tried to operate the ferry and it, too, was unsuccessful. This information and more can be found at the site The Short History of the Rochester Fast Ferry.

The fast ferry to and from Toronto was an idea that sounded great in the City Council chambers and in the Mayor's Office. In the real world, where things can go wrong and not everyone is on the same page, that dream became Rochester's failed fast ferry.

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