Metrorail shutdown south of AlexandriaNational Airport would have been a good opportunity to promote ferry service

While I think ferry and water taxi services are cool, they don't lend themselves well to the DC area transportation system--apart from tourist oriented services--because the rivers aren't well-located vis-à-vis the area's office districts and major destinations.



Water taxi at the transit pier at the Wharf District, Southwest DC

Potomac Riverboat offers tourist services between Alexandria, National Harbor, the Wharf, Navy Yard, Georgetown, and Mount Vernon, but the dis/embarkation points aren't convenient to transit connections, and people would still have a long trek to get from the Wharf or Navy Yard to Downtown after getting off a ferry (although like in NYC, the ferry could provide a connecting bus service).

They do offer a reasonably priced season's pass between certain destinations, to encourage transit use--it's $175 versus $20 for a single trip.

(Past discussions of ferry service in the area have discussed Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in DC as a possible place for a dock.  Boston provides a dock for Logan Airport, so National Airport could be a place to serve.  And Rosslyn, since it is an office district, and the business district is a trek from Washington Harbor in Georgetown, where the dock is now.)

Position water-based transportation as a premium service.  When I was in London last year, I spent almost a full day with Ivan Bennett, former product design manager for the bus division of Transport for London, and that included about a six hour walking tour along the Thames.

He pointed out that the River Bus ferry system there is positioned as a premium service, triple the cost of a ride on the Underground, somewhat more comparable in price to commuter rail.

It takes a bit longer than a subway ride, but it's fun, comfortable, sedate, you can get/read newspapers, etc.

New York City needs to follow London's lead and reprice and reposition their new ferry services as a premium service.

The Staten Island Ferry is free, justified because Staten Island lacks a subway connection to the mainland.

But the ferries on the rivers are priced the same as a subway fare, and each trip is subsidized by almost $25 !!!!! ("
A Ferry Subsidy of $24.75 a Ride? New York City's Costs Are Ballooning," New York Times).

Metrorail shutdown.  For the next 13+ weeks, Metrorail service on Virginia's Blue and Yellow lines starts/ends at National Airport, as the stations south of this point--Braddock Road, King Street, Eisenhower Avenue, Huntington, Van Dorn Street, Franconia-Springfield--are closed for repair ("As Metro shutdown arrives, dread pervades the Yellow and Blue lines," Washington Post).

Bus shuttle service will be provided ("WTOP Track Work Guide: Summer 2019 Blue and Yellow Line shutdown," WTOP-radio). But there aren't many other options.

The VRE/Virginia Railway Express commuter service doesn't provide bi-directional service with one exception, and they don't have the ability to add trains. Probably commuter buses could be added, but there isn't really a coordinated system of commuter bus service from this area of Virginia, although buses would be available, if a service could be organized.

What about water-based transit? It didn't occur to me that this would be a great opportunity to promote water transportation.  Fortunately, it did occur to Fritz Hahn, the Washington Post nightlife columnist, who mentioned last Friday in a piece that this could have been done in association with the shutdown of the Metrorail.

Yes, there are a few problems with this idea.

1.  Lack of slack resources.  There aren't many ferries lying around ready and waiting to be used.  Usually they are ordered on long time lines, unused ones need fixing, etc.

2.  Short period.  A 10 week gig wouldn't be long enough to justify hiring a few ferries to try it out.

Unless stakeholders and planners would see this as worth doing for "market development" and proof of concept purposes.


Note that "Boat to Work Day" in Charleston, SC is a model for beginning to promote water-based transit in the DC area ("Boat to Work Day in Charleston, SC: is a promotion that other water-based transportation services ought to adopt").

3.  Unbalanced service.  Probably the usage pattern would be unbalanced.  Lots of people going to DC in the morning, and from DC in the evening.  But return trips in between wouldn't have many passengers.

This isn't the case with ferry service in the Puget Sound, such as to Bainbridge Island.  The seven mile trip each way tends to be pretty full at all times of day.

4.  Capacity, draft, and dock access.  Anyway, water taxis are small and have small passenger capacity compared to subway trains.

Wikipedia photo.

For example, the small ferries in NYC have a capacity of 150-350.  King County's water taxis have a capacity of 278 passengers.

Big ferries, like for the Staten Island Ferry, have a capacity of 1,280 to 6,000 passengers depending on the ship.

The ferries serving Bainbridge Island have capacities of 2,500 passengers and 202 vehicles.

Ferries integrated into metropolitan and regional transportation systems often are integrated into the area's transit fare media system like Orca in Seattle, Clipper in SF, etc.  Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle. Craig McKinlay and son Cullan, 7, get tickets for the ferry to Larkspur.

The ability for "large ferries" like those used for Staten Island, Puget Sound, or the San Francisco Bay ("Even the SF Bay ferries are crowded these days," San Francisco Chronicle) to dock close to the shore on the Potomac River is probably limited because of the depth of the water and the "draft" of the boat.

So a larger fleet of smaller ferries would be needed.