Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler wants to contribute city money to study bringing passenger ferries to the Willamette and Columbia rivers and shuttling commuters between Oregon and Washington.

Michael Cox, Wheeler’s chief of staff, made the announcement Tuesday at a news conference aboard the Portland Spirit.

Backers of the up-start project, which they are calling the Frog Ferry, organized the event aboard the river cruise ship to drum up support and put pressure on public agencies to help pay for an in-depth study.

Susan Bladholm, president and founder of the nonprofit Friends of Frog Ferry organization, said she has asked Portland, Vancouver, the Oregon Department of Transportation and TriMet to help pay for the study.

“If the studies don’t bear out,” Bladholm said, “then we’re not going to go ahead and implement this.”

But the former marketing leader for Erickson Incorporated, the Portland-based aviation giant, said after spending the past 18 months diving into the issue, she has no doubt a ferry makes sense between Portland and Vancouver.

“This is more than doable,” she said. “This is way past time.”

Many questions remain unanswered – such as how much money it would cost to build terminals, docks and buy boats. But Bladholm said it’s time to act now.

“We can go ahead and play around with this for the next decade or the next 50 years,” she said, “but when we do have the ability to pull this together rather quickly to provide a new transit mode for our locals, let’s do it, especially when we have so much private sector support backing us.”

She said Portland could have a ferry system running between the Port of Vancouver’s Terminal 1 west of the Interstate Bridge to downtown Portland in four years. A one-way trip could take 38 minutes, she said, adding that’s a conservative estimate. Bladholm said the ferry service, which would require a public subsidy, would be scaled up to include other stops in Portland, Lake Oswego or Oregon City.

The news conference came one week after Bladholm and Portland Spirit owner Dan Yates lobbied the state’s top transportation decisionmakers for money for the study, which Bladholm estimated may cost $625,000. She has private sector support, she said.

Cox said Wheeler “fully supports” funding a portion of the study, adding the Willamette River could be one of the city’s “true resources” to bring everyone together. “Portlanders want a vibrant waterfront,” Cox said, “and the mayor does too. Ferry service serves both of these needs, transit and water access.”

But it’s unclear how much money Portland would be asked to contribute and where that money would come from. Wheeler would also need a majority of the City Council’s support, and discussions could pick up during budget talks this spring.

Cox said the mayor’s office was excited to “lead a conversation with other jurisdictions to get all the money on the table,” adding that conversation is moving forward “with some urgency and some excitement.”

TriMet confirmed the ferry supporters had asked for financial help.

Chad Eiken, Vancouver’s director of community and economic development, said in a voicemail that city officials met with Frog Ferry representatives several weeks ago. “We didn’t make any commitments,” Eiken said, but he added the city was “obviously supportive of their efforts,” but he said it was early and Vancouver was waiting to see that it’s “in fact a real project.”

Bladholm said backers are hoping Clark County planners include the ferry project on Southwest Washington’s long-range transportation project list, which is expected to be approved in mid-December.

Meanwhile, Tuesday’s gathering occurred with the empty Willamette River as a canvas behind it.

Yates, the Portland Spirit owner, said that sadly is an everyday occurrence, unlike freeways and roads, “which are full.”

-- Andrew Theen

atheen@oregonian.com

503-294-4026

@andrewtheen