I’m not much of an expert on ferries. I don’t know too much about watercraft in general, and I’d need to have a good think before I could confidently tell you which is port and which is starboard.
I do know one thing, though: ferries should, ideally be able to fit under bridges. According to a new report from the Sydney Morning Herald, a new fleet of Sydney ferries can’t – unless passengers first return to the lower deck.
The paper states ten new RiverCat ferries, slated to run from Sydney Harbour up the Parramatta River later this year, are just tall enough to cause issues when passing under the Camellia Railway Bridge and the Gasworks Bridge.
The new ferries will be able to transport 200 passengers at full capacity, and they boast ten seats on the upper deck. Those seats will need to be vacated when passing under the bridges, Transport for NSW confirmed to the paper.
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In a stunningly graphic claim, Graeme Taylor of advocacy group Action for Public Transport said that if passengers aren’t first shuffled to the lower deck, they will “be severed from the waist up, at high tide it’s a matter of centimetres.”
Other critics have taken less gory approaches to the issue. Opposition transport spokesperson Chris Minns responded to the Herald’s article on Twitter, suggesting the new ferries be named the “River Duck.”
New Ferries will be named at the end of the year in a public competition… May I suggest “the RIVER DUCK”. https://t.co/RvQOq7PoW6
— Chris Minns (@MinnsChris) August 23, 2020
Very good.
A Transport for New South Wales spokesperson said the State Government was aware of the height situation before signing off on the fleet. Stay down, I guess.
It’s another golden moment for Sydney’s ferry system, which provides a valuable service to thousands of commuters every day – and comic relief for the rest of us.
