This column was inspired by a note I received from transportation historian Derek Boles who reminded me that this past Jan. 12 was the 10th anniversary of the official termination of the Toronto to Rochester fast ferry service.

The idea for the ferry was promoted by several politicians and businessmen from that American city (which coincidentally was incorporated as a city in 1834, the same year the Town of York became the City of Toronto) in an effort to boost tourism.

To carry out the proposed cross-lake service between Toronto and Charlotte (the latter being the Lake Ontario port for the inland City of Rochester) a large Australian-built catamaran with a carrying capacity of almost 800 passengers, 10 trucks and 150 cars was purchased. After a few startup glitches, the vessel, christened the Spirit of Ontario (though known better on the lake as The Breeze and The Cat), made its first appearance in Toronto Harbour on June 17, 2004. The vessel berthing facility was in the Portlands at the foot of Cherry St.

Financial and political problems forced the service to be suspended in the fall of 2004 and it didn’t resume until June of the following year. When the citizens of Rochester elected a new chief magistrate to begin serving in 2006, Robert Duffy decided his city would no longer support the financially strapped fast ferry service and the project died. But not the Spirit. The two colour photos show “our” catamaran at work in other parts of the world.

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Many of Mike’s Sunday Sun columns have been published by Dundurn Press in a series titled, Toronto Sketches, the Way We Were. Volume 12 in the series is now in bookstores. Further details at Dundurn.com