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Community Corner

CT River Ferries: They Are What They Are

Flop as transportation, triumph as tourist odyssey

The crisis is over, again. The state has reversed its threat to close two historic Connecticut River ferries and instead funded them for another two years. We locals mop our tears and go back to work. We rarely ride these shuttles but we understand what they bring visitors: a 5-minute immersion in nature.

The threat of closing the e and the Chester-Hadlyme boat rears up every several years because they bring in about about one-third the money needed to run them. But the state tallies the value of these ferries all wrong. They don’t belong in the category of commuter rail and buses when talking about the state budget. These ferries belong in the state tourism or economic development departments, or with the state parks.

I have lived and worked near the Chester-Hadlyme Ferry for many years. We central Connecticut residents ride these boats only when we have time to go nowhere—so to speak. I take the ferry to calm down and take a walk up to . Or I take it to see the river with my visiting sister, and her kids. Years ago, I did this with my own daughters. The point is not to hurry.

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Another local, Lauren Agnelli, has written that it can take an hour to cross the Chester-Hadlyme Ferry, counting waiting and loading. Why aren’t the riders swearing and shaking their fists? We all grin like toddlers once we’re aboard. We like scrambling out of the car and smelling the water, waving at the other boats and jawing with the fare-takers.

These are moving state parks. The state ought to face what the ferries are—fun—and what they’re not—trade routes. Of course, they used to be practical boats. Hundreds of years ago, the riverfront towns were full of roads called Ferry Road. Many of the old ferry roads still exist, but without ferries. Farmers and entrepreneurs poled people and animals across for a few cents back then. This was before cars, before highway bridges, before everyone was in such a rush. The Chester-Hadlyme and the Rocky Hill-Glastonbury ferries converted to handle cars and kept running. They’re one of the few live history machines around here.

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What the Connecticut River ferries bring:

1. Environmental values and fun. When people can experience the landscape, whether on foot, horseback, boat, or whatever, they start to care more about preserving its beauty.

The ferries promote environmental values and improve tourists’ visits. If the state moved the ferry service out of the Department of Transportation and into the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection’s parks division, or the state tourism department, they could draw even more people to it. We hear about the ferries when they are crowded. Most of the time, these two little boats operate with extra space.

2. Low-cost thrills. OK, it’s just 5 minutes, but the ferry is fun. Ordinary people who cannot afford to own or rent a boat can get out onto a river for $1 (if on foot) or $3 (by car) on these ferries. They can see a river so beautiful that it was named a wetlands of international importance by the Ramsar Convention.

The ferries should reduce their rates, not increase them. It’s true that the ferry operates at an embarrassing deficit. When has transportation ever made money, unless it was a monorail at a Disney park? These ferries don’t carry full loads that often. Before the union vote in August, when it appeared the ferries would close, my sister waited three trips to get on. She was going to wait anyway: they had driven four hours and her mother-in-law lives just on the other side.

3. Bike routes. Cyclists stream onto Connecticut roads at this time of year. The ferries offer safe crossings and funnel hundreds of athletes to country roads, to nearby parks (Gillette Castle State Park in Hadlyme; , a town park in Rocky Hill, , also in Rocky Hill).

4. A way to slow down and de-stress. The ferries hum along slowly. Riders think about their forbears, watch the river’s currents and the boats, glance up onto the opposite shores, note the sandy landings and water birds. Isn’t this the kind of experience people seek out in the tropics?

Every few years, the tears we locals shed about the ferries seem like crocodile tears to me. But then I think about this more, and I realize that they’re real tears because the state of Connecticut continues to question the value of two of its greatest tourist assets. On these quirky historical nature trips—that is, Connecticut River ferry rides—hundreds of people a day meet the river and love it.

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