November 07, 2016

World's shortest ferry ride


No need for a seat on this ferry

IN his continuing search for the more weird and wondrous in this world, David Ellis says that when it comes to ferry rides, the Canadian city of Toronto takes the cake for having the world's shortest.

Because the distance from Downtown to the city's Toronto Island with its City Centre Airport, is all of 121 metres (that's less than 400 feet) and takes the ferry a mere 90 seconds to complete.

Until July of 2015 when an underground pedestrian tunnel was opened, the ferry was the only means of public transport to the Airport in Lake Ontario, and which sees 2.5 million passenger movements a year on flights to and from 22 centres in Canada and the USA.

Free for passengers and with a small charge for a limited number of cars, the ferry operates every 15 minutes, nineteen hours a day. But with often long queues of waiting passengers during peak periods, it was decided to supplement it last year with the pedestrian tunnel 30 metres underground, and with two moving footways in each direction.

Including descent and ascent by lifts or escalators, and travel on the 240m long footways, that whole tunnel journey takes around six minutes… and overhead the ferry continues to operate unaffected on its unique 121 metre, 90 second journeys.




[] YOU won't get a shorter ferry ride than this – a mere 90 seconds to cover all of 121 metres. (PortsToronto)

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