TILLSONBURG, Ont. — Canada’s newest border crossing could be a marine corridor with a gateway in Port Burwell, Ont. about 25 km south of Tillsonburg on Lake Erie.

According to the Tillsonburg News, plans for a new passenger and cargo ferry service across the Great Lake between Port Burwell and an Ohio port near Cleveland moved closer to reality after Bayham council heard a presentation from Kent Kristensen of Short Sea Lines, who is proposing a ferry base in the town.

Kristensen is calling on council to approve a border crossing between the Canadian port and Fairport Harbor, Ohio. It will include, among other things, a high-speed passenger ferry, as well as ROPAX ferry for transport trucks and cars. The truck ferry can carry about 65 trucks, the newspaper reports. Kristensen said the commercial ferry could operate almost year-round, except for 15-30 “ice days” in the winter.

Kristensen said the new crossing could act an alternative route for traffic heading westbound to the congested Windsor-Detroit Ambassador Bridge, which accounts for 40 percent of truck traffic between Canada and the U.S. He says he’s already talked to automotive manufacturers and transport companies and has their support.

On the American side, the town of Grand River, which is adjacent to Fairport Harbor, has already written the U.S. government requesting to be the next border crossing, Kristensen said. He told the Tillsonburg News he has an agreement in principle from the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to use for a harbour and dredge.

Kristensen also said he has a deal in place with existing Danish ferry owner Mols-Linien to provide the vessels. The next step is building facilities. Kristensen says he hopes to see the ROPAX ferry start next fall or the high speed in spring 2007.

This isn’t the first time a plan for an Ontario-Ohio cargo ferry across Lake Erie has been floated. A former president of Canadian American Transportation Systems (CATS) — the company that operates a Toronto-Rochester, N.Y. passenger ferry — once told Today’s Trucking he was gauging demand for a truck-only ferry service between Sarnia and Cleveland.

Earlier this year, Seaway Marine Transport was promoting a plan for a new year-round ferry service to transport up to 100 trailers across the lake from Nanticoke, Ont. to Erie, Pa.

Other proponents of that plan included steelmaker Stelco, the Town of Haldimand, and the Erie-West Pennsylvania Port Authority, which has pursued the idea since 2003.

–with files from the Tillsonburg News