Engineering:Water taxi

Short description: Public or private transportation vessel

Royal Daffodil ship in Liverpool, Mersey Ferry

Water Bus in Tigre, Buenos Aires

Water taxis parked at Labadie Beach, Haiti

Water Taxis, Cowes, Isle of Wight

Water bus in Cardiff

Water taxi meets water bus in Rotterdam

Water bus in Bydgoszcz, Poland

Water taxi in Auckland

A pair of water taxis operating on the waterfront of Boston

A water taxi operating on the waterfront in Puerto Ayora, Galapagos Island of Santa Cruz.

Water bus in Bristol Harbour

Abra in Dubai

New York Water Taxi

Tokyo Water bus

A water taxi or a water bus is a watercraft used to provide public or private transport, usually, but not always, in an urban environment. Service may be scheduled with multiple stops, operating in a similar manner to a bus, or on demand to many locations, operating in a similar manner to a taxi. A boat service shuttling between two points would normally be described as a ferry rather than a water bus or taxi.

The term water taxi is usually confined to a boat operating on demand, and water bus to a boat operating on a schedule. In North American usage, the terms are roughly synonymous.

The earliest water taxi service was recorded as operating around the area that became Manchester, England.

Locations

Cities and other places operating water buses and/or taxis include:

Water taxi in San Martín de los Andes

Water taxi near the train station, Grand Canal, Venice

Vaporetto and bus stops in Venice

On demand water taxis are also commonly found in marinas, harbours and cottage areas, providing access to boats and waterfront properties that are not directly accessible by land.

Incidents

On March 6, 2004, a water taxi on the Seaport Taxi service operated by the Living Classrooms Foundation capsized during a storm on the Patapsco River, near Baltimore's Inner Harbor. A total of five passengers died in the accident, which the National Transportation Safety Board determined was caused by insufficient stability when the small pontoon-style vessel encountered strong winds and waves. The company no longer operates water taxi vessels in Baltimore harbor.

See also

• Duffy-Herreshoff watertaxi
• Ferry, including hydrofoil, catamaran and hovercraft
• Klotok
• Moskvitch-class motorship - Soviet "water tramway"
• Pleasure barge
• Rower woman
• Ship's tender