Proposed watertown ferry

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What is the Wada Hoppah? The proposed Charles River ferry could ease Boston traffic.​

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“WATERTOWN – It's no secret that Boston traffic is a major issue. Two men want to change that by launching a ferry on the Charles River from Watertown to Boston. They're calling it the Wada Hoppah.

for the last year, they've been working on an all-electric, 40-passenger ferry being built in Concord.

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“It turns out some of the infrastructure to make Wada Hoppah a reality is already in place. Trips would begin at an existing dock off Watertown Square.

"The full route is Watertown Square to TD Garden. We wanted that to be the final stop so people could go to Celtics games, concerts, Bruins games by water. Point A to point B is about 50 minutes, it's 10.5 miles," Rollert explained………”

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/boston/news/charles-river-ferry-boston-wada-hoppah/

 
The Charles is pretty shallow in Watertown. I wonder if there would be a concern about the motor potentially kicking up a lot of mud.
 
It sounds like a great idea but 50 minutes to go 10 miles is nothing to get excited about. Also, if they're going to take people home from the TD Garden and Fenway, they should have late night service.

Also, frequency is key, so they're going to need more than one boat.
 
The 504 Express bus to Watertown is faster and will carry more people. Connecting from the Garden to Chinatown by T then on to the 504 is still faster than the ferry.

Taking the Fitchburg line to Waltham then backtracking to Watertown by bus is also faster.
 
Very Epcot. (So now I have the music from this Barbie/Disney VHS that my sister got at Bradlees 30 years ago stuck in my head).

I don't see how having to make 10 docking procedures on a trip is going to be any quicker than a bus that can just pull over.
 
Charlie_mta said:
Would this thing break through the ice in the winter? I see this ending up being a pleasure excursion/tourist boat in the summer, but that's it.
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They say it wouldn't run in the winter. Just ice-free months.
 
The 504 Express bus to Watertown is faster and will carry more people. Connecting from the Garden to Chinatown by T then on to the 504 is still faster than the ferry.
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Having previously lived car-free in the area for a number of years, I consider myself to be a bit of a connoisseur of the 5XX express buses, including the 504. I'm not sure how things are post-COVID, but in the before times, timekeeping heavily depended on the current state of Newton Corner, whether something was happening at Fenway, and whatever accident or snow was happening at the time. As a result, I feel like the AVERAGE time for the 504 was about 30-35 minutes, but it could be 5-10 minutes less or 20-30 minutes more depending on the day. Morning timekeeping seemed better than afternoon, FWIW.

It was such a slog, that I'd occasionally get frisky and do a B-Line to 57 bus, or Red Line to 70 bus for variety, even though those were usually a bit slower. Depending on the cost, a ferry might have been my "go-to" option just for the pure pleasure of it. More recently, the North Station to Seaport ferry has earned my love.
 
Arenacale said:
Very Epcot. (So now I have the music from this Barbie/Disney VHS that my sister got at Bradlees 30 years ago stuck in my head).

I don't see how having to make 10 docking procedures on a trip is going to be any quicker than a bus that can just pull over.
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With the 10 docking maneuvers, plus debark/embark, it is NEVER going to make 50 minutes Watertown to North Station.
 
JeffDowntown said:
With the 10 docking maneuvers, plus debark/embark, it is NEVER going to make 50 minutes Watertown to North Station.
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Yeah, no way.

Just for reference, they say they tried out the route from Watertown to the Hatch Shell, five stops, in 67 minutes. I think that's technically possible, but they're not thinking through realistic (or maybe any) dwell times. But they say they tried it. That'll be close. And that's already slow enough to reasonably guess this isn't going to work.

fatnoah said:
Depending on the cost, a ferry might have been my "go-to" option just for the pure pleasure of it
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Well, they'll be counting on customers like you!

Seriously, I'm kind of with you on this. They're banking on people willing to trade some extra travel time for comfort. I'm willing to make that trade sometimes. People make that trade off all the time.

The trouble for this company is people are usually only willing to make that trade at the margins, where relative travel times are at least close-ish. The anticipated trips on this boat aren't even close to public transit travel times. Plus they'll only have one boat, so they'll be stopping at Watertown once every three hours.
 
I think they really need to cut down on the number of stops, start in Watertown and only stop at BU Docks and Kendall. Watertown to Kendall/North Station is a niche that's really not well filled right now, so if they double down on that and can at least get within spitting distance of 50 minutes for the full route they probably have a shot given that's about how long the trip takes on the 504+OL currently. I can definitely see 65 minutes but a one seat ride being compelling enough to get 40 commuters per day.

Also, stopping at CRI and Herter Park just doesn't make sense at all. Like, who are those serving?
 
Ok, they've got this boat, here's my pitch.

Just run from the Broad Canal, right near Kendall, to Nashua Street Park, right near North Station.

I don't know how feasible it is to have another dock in the Broad Canal. It's currently just used for kayak rentals. And there is a dock at Nashua Street Park. I don't know if it's public.

But that trip is under a mile, in the 10mph zone, so the trip is 6 minutes. Plus some walking time. The walk on the Cambridge side is lovely. The walk on the Boston side to North Station is.... well, bleak, but there's a sidewalk. Either way, that'll be about the same travel time as the EZBus, or taking the T Red to Orange or Red to Green to get to North Station. Boat is probably faster.

With two boats they could ferry back and forth from Kendall to North Station every 8-ish minutes.
 
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ritchiew said:
Ok, they've got this boat, here's my pitch.

Just run from the Broad Canal, right near Kendall, to Nashua Street Park, right near North Station.

I don't know how feasible it is to have another dock in the Broad Canal. It's currently just used for kayak rentals. And there is a dock at Nashua Street Park. I don't know if it's public.

But that trip is under a mile, in the 10mph zone, so the trip is 6 minutes. Plus some walking time. The walk on the Cambridge side is lovely. The walk on the Boston side to North Station is.... well, bleak, but there's a sidewalk. Either way, that'll be about the same travel time as the EZBus, or taking the T Red to Orange or Red to Green to get to North Station. Boat is probably faster.

With two boats they could ferry back and forth from Kendall to North Station every 8-ish minutes.
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That is a great link. The only down side is losing it in the winter.
 
40 seats is so few, if this ever got momentum i feel like you'd have to watch some boats come and go before you even go on.

It is stupid that Boston doesn't have more ferry/water-focused options. I've used the ferry in NYC a couple times to get around and it was surprisingly fast and well organized. You can even grab a beer from the cafe, but the issue is that you get to wherever you need to go before you can finish your beer!
 
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