Page 27: of Marine News Magazine (November 2021)

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Column

Passenger Vessels

Since the 1980s there has been a remarkable revival of ferry services in perience, but would often be hesitant to commit to a ferry many U.S. waterfront cities, but COVID-19 has wreaked commute if the ferry only ran during commuter hours. havoc on the most pro? table component of these services: Many commuters have irregular hours, and, if the ferry the commuter runs. With post-COVID work-at-home ar- only runs during peak hours, a commuter may not want to rangements and part-week in-of? ce work, these ferry ser- deal with the uncertainty of getting stuck in the city if they vices have suffered a tremendous loss of income. But there could not make it to the ferry by the last afternoon run.

are glimmers of hope that a recovery is likely, although in a Emerging ferry services often found that they could only different form, in a different world. capture commuters with rigid working hours and then hit

Commuter runs are often the bread and butter portion a growth limit. This limit could be broken if the ferry ser- of a ferry services, but only in the rarest cases can a pro? t- vices increased off hour runs, but since these runs would able ferry service be created that only runs during commut- never run at full capacity, they operated at a loss, which er hours. The creation of such services often resulted in a then required an additional large investment, beyond the strange design conundrum. Commuters might be attracted initial commuter service investment.

to a cleaner, or quicker, or more enjoyable commuter ex- However, if the ferry service had suf? cient ? nancial legs, www.marinelink.com MN 27|