HAMILTON, Ont. (Feb. 15, 2005) — The company that proposed a cargo truck ferry link between Oswego, N.Y. and Hamilton last year is pitching a new trailer ferry sailing across Lake Erie.

Seaway Marine Transport says its plan would launch a new year-round ferry service to transport up to 100 trailers across the lake from Nanticoke, Ont. to Erie, Pa., the Hamilton Spectator reports. The crossing is said to take about four hours, including loading and unloading.

Other proponents of the new ferry include steelmaker Stelco, the Town of Haldimand, and the Erie-West Pennsylvania Port Authority, which has been pursuing the idea since 2003, according to the newspaper. The authority will take over a 17.6-hectare property in Erie which includes the largest dry dock facility on the Great Lakes.

Marketing studies completed by some of the stakeholders show that the trailer roll on/off service would help alleviate truck traffic from the Peace Bridge in Fort Erie, Ont., and save time and money for the trucking industry.

Organizers hope to have the service in place by spring of 2006.

Talks for the Oswego, N.Y. -Hamilton ferry are still ongoing. Tentative plans call for one ferry travelling in each direction overnight every day of the year, carrying 90 to 110 units at a time. The 265 km trip is expected to take about 12 hours.

Several trucking companies interviewed by Today’s Trucking seemed skeptical of that plan. “In he normal course of business it probably wouldn’t be a real big feature for us,” Challenger Motor Freight’s Enno Jakobson said last year. “But there could be situations where I could see it being utilized as somewhat the same way we use rail to deal with capacity issues, depending on volumes and cost and things like that.”

— with files from the Hamilton Spectator