Toronto is giving residents and visitors a new way to move around its downtown waterfront, one that swaps gridlocked roads for the open water. The city has unveiled an east-west water shuttle that will let people travel by boat along the lakefront, including a route that connects the island airport to the Portlands on the eastern edge of the harbour.
The service is set to begin almost immediately. Officials said the new water shuttle opens to the public on Friday, and the mayor was among the first to take a trip aboard the city's newest vessel during a preview of the route. The launch adds a maritime option to a waterfront that, until now, had no shuttle running directly along the shoreline from west to east.
The route is built around three stops spread along the harbour. The shuttle starts at Bathurst and Queens Quay, then calls at Yonge and Queens Quay, before continuing to its final destination at a park on the eastern end of the waterfront. That eastward reach is meant to open up a part of the lakefront that has been awkward to get to by other means.
City officials framed the project as a direct answer to the traffic that clogs the area. Instead of trying to navigate Queens Quay, the Gardiner Expressway or Lake Shore Boulevard and getting stuck behind the wheel, riders can simply hop aboard and ride the shuttle all the way to the park, an alternative pitched as both quicker and far more pleasant than fighting downtown congestion.
For now, the shuttle is being treated as an experiment rather than a permanent fixture. It is a pilot project scheduled to run for the next three years, operating during the summer months, a timeline that will give the city a chance to gauge how many people actually use it and whether a boat link along the waterfront can become a lasting part of the transit mix.
One selling point officials were quick to highlight is the price tag, or rather the lack of one for the public purse. The shuttle, they said, will run at no cost to the city, with a private company, York Bay Marine Services, brought in to handle the day-to-day operations of the route over the course of the pilot.
Supporters say the appeal is as much about the experience as the convenience, with the argument that the best way to appreciate the city is from the water. As Toronto prepares for a busy summer on its waterfront, the new shuttle offers a low-stress way to take in the skyline while skipping the traffic, and its performance over the coming months will help determine whether the idea sticks beyond the trial.