Early morning commuters will get the chance from Monday to take a more sustainable and far less congested journey to work when Bristol Ferry Boat Company launches its new service.
The company is to introduce the new commuter service from Temple Meads to Hotwells via The Centre on a two-month trial.
It hopes commuters fed up with Bristol’s traffic-choked streets will take to the water for a relaxing 20-minute trip between Temple Meads and The Centre. 
Bristol Ferries manager Philippa Bungard said: “We have a traffic-free corridor through our centre so let’s make use of it.
“We run on time because there’s no congestion. What could be better than sitting back on board one of our ferries and watching the city from the water. Then arriving at work feeling relaxed rather than sitting behind the wheel of a car and arriving stressed.”
While river taxis and commuter ferry services have been popular in the past, they mainly relied on subsidies to operate. With council spending cuts and the demise of other forms of subsidy, they became uneconomic.
But Philippa believes with the huge increase in new homes around the Floating Harbour, more commuters will get on board with the new service.
Low Carbon South West’s Go Green breakfast event on Tuesday gave members a chance to try out the service and find out more about how it fits into the wider use of the Floating Harbour.
Architect Rob Delius, head of sustainability at Bristol-headquartered firm Stride Treglown, told the event that the idea for the trial came from a morning ‘commuter race’ they staged during last year’s Big Green Week.
It pitted staff against each other to see who could get from Temple Meads railway station to the firm’s Clifton head office quickest and most sustainably. As the ferries did not start until later they could not take the boat.
Rob Delius said: “On that occasion the electric bike won but it stared us thinking about why the ferry didn’t start running until 10am and how much benefit would be gained from a commuter service.
“We included the idea in our publication 52 Great Ideas for Bristol which proposes one idea per week for a whole year to make Bristol greener, it was picked up by colleagues at Low Carbon South West who made the introduction to Bristol Ferries. We’re absolutely delighted that this has now become a reality.”
The commuter service is initially being trialled for two months to gauge the level of demand, but Low Carbon South West, which promotes the environmental sector in the region, sees it as a potentially important contributor to lowering pollution in the city.
