A town in Ontario wants to forge a new link with an Ohio city across Lake Erie — with a ferry that would cross the border between the two cities. From the Globe and Mail:
Six high-speed ferries would be able to transport semi-trailers, cars and passengers across Lake Erie, and be equipped with restaurants and business rooms. The proposal would cost about $550-million and be funded by Ontario, Ottawa and governments in the United States.
Already, there is $88 million in daily business crossing the border between Ontario and Ohio. This would add capacity and ease congestion, say promoters of the idea. Something they haven’t mentioned, but which would be a no-brainer, in my idea, is to incorporate the customs process into the ferry ride itself.
Looks like it’s currently about a 450-km car ride, through Buffalo, and my eye on the google map shows that it would be just about 140 km over the lake, so that cuts out a boatload of time (ahem) but it would still be long enough to process drivers and passengers while they are on the ferry.
Fail the customs process, you just aren’t allowed off the ferry and have to return. But in the meantime, you can cut out all the port-side waiting.
Grant Hamilton
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This was tried years ago on the Amtrak train from Montreal to New York. Back when there were two separate services (Customs and Immigration), INS officers traveled into Canada by car, boarded the train and inspected passengers as the train moved toward the border. With Customs, there were two problems: they couldn’t carry firearms into Canada, and their search and seizure authority stopped at the border, so if contraband was discovered the passenger could have tossed it out the window or down the toilet.
I almost mentioned that Amtrak, because I thought a similar thing when Amy and I took that train a couple of years ago — it just seemed like wasted time when we were stopped at the border.
I wonder if the fuzziness of a water border might alleviate some of the concerns they had with the train being on the wrong side of the line for their authority? It seems like there should be a way to make it work.