Morris car on the old West End line, 1941

Christoher Johnston had some thoughts yesterday on a plan originating in Mandeville to run a high-speed ferry from the north shore to New Orleans. The plan (as reported by Jeff Adelson of Da Paper) is interesting:

Shuttles would bring commuters from several locations in western St. Tammany Parish, including Louisiana 59 in Abita Springs, U.S. 190 in Covington and Louisiana 22 in Covington, to the departure point. Shuttles would also be available to various locations on the south shore, such as the Central Business District in New Orleans.

Preliminary plans call for the ferry service to cost $30 for a round-trip or $20 one-way. Weekly passes would be available for $135, monthly passes for $500 and "executive level" seating for $700 a month. The shuttle service taking commuters to and from the ferries would cost extra, Schild said.

As Chris points out in his blog, the problem comes in when the boat gets to West End (the assumed landing point in New Orleans. The marinas there aren't well-suited for commuter operations. NORTA's Lakeview bus line is a hybrid/combo of the pre-storm Canal Blvd and West End lines. A ferry commuter would board the bus at Pontchartrain Blvd and Robt E Lee, then it's 15 minutes to City Park Ave. Transfer to the streetcar and head into downtown. Given the layout of Orleans Marina and the Municipal Yacht Harbor, the ferry operator would have to run a shuttle bus to the RTA bus stop, for sure.

What this project could do, however, is bring back the West End bus line as it was pre-storm. This line was originally the West End streetcar. It converted to bus service in 1948. When the Canal streetcar was discontinued in 1964, the service became the Canal-Lakeshore line. You could ride to West End and RE Lee all the way from the foot of Canal. With the return of streetcars to Canal in 2004, the line was given the West End name again and ran from Cemeteries out to the lake. The old streetcar ran on tracks on the eastern side of the New Basin Canal (West End Blvd) inbound and outbound. With the closure of the canal and change to buses, the outbound route went up West End and down Pontchartrain Blvd (the western side of the old canal). If ferry ridershp was substantial, beefing up Lakeview bus service would be a no-brainer, as well as working re-routing the NORTA line to hook up with the ferry dock.

In the meantime, shuttle service to downtown would be attractive (if not cheap), since that's one-stop-shopping for commuters. Chris hits that nail right on the head:

I think both of these issues will be worked out as this moves further along. Some enterprising entrepreneur could have a decked out bus with comfy seats and wifi and offer contract service from the dock to downtown for commuters. You would buy a monthly pass and the bus service would be timed with ferry arrivals so you could go quickly from ferry to bus to work. With wifi on both you get work done from the house to the office and avoid the stress of morning traffic.

As much as I'm a fan of NORTA and the streetcar, if this was my daily commute, a bus with wi-fi would be wicked attractive.

Another potential group of customers forf the ferry service might be New Orleanians who want to day-trip it to Mandeville and points north. Chris' idea here is brilliant:

For those going in the other direction a ZipCar location at the Mandeville landing would be a perfect solution. Imagine you plan to spend the day in Mandeville so you book your trip with the Causeway ferry Android app and then open your ZipCar app and book a car for the day. When you arrive you use the app to locate the car, get in and spend the day tooling around town, shopping, eating at Lakefront restaurants, and enjoying the scenery. At the end of the day you turn in the car, hop back on the ferry, and enjoy the traffic free ride home.

What a great idea! If someone living in NOLA who doesn't own a car wants to get to Mandeville, it's complicated. ZipCar makes perfect sense for them. Combine the ferry with a ZipCar on the other side, and you might have more folks willing to come up for the day.

Crossing Lake Pontchartrain is different than the water shuttles used in cities like Boston.  We're talking a 25-27 mile trip.  Avoiding the challenges to sanity posed by driving the Causeway, then getting on I-10 with the Metairie/Kenner commuters may well be enough to make this ferry concept happen.