Let’s leave behind the burning heat of the underground and the endless traffic jams in order to get on board the latest water-buses that are flooding the metropolises.
The "Beirut Water Taxi" project plans to put into place an express shuffle service, which will sail the waters of the Mediterranean. Supported by the Prime Minister Saad Hariri, this sea-borne transport will bring an alternative to crammed road traffic to the capital of the country, Beirut.
In Beirut, there are 500,000 vehicles in circulation every day: "the aim is to reduce by at least 25% the flow of cars into Beirut by offering a pleasant alternative solution for getting around to workers, students and tourists" confirms Khaled Takki, MD of the private company that runs the project.
This initiative takes its inspiration from the river shuttle services of large foreign metropolises, such as the New York "Water Taxi" or the Hong Kong "Star Ferry".
An attractive inland waterway
This is a concept that has gained ground in Paris where the Voguéo service has been tested since 2008. The first ‘river tube’ on the Seine, which connects the station of Austerlitz to Maisons-Alfort in five stops, is the result of a study launched by the City of Paris in order to build alternative means of transport that were both cost-saving and green.
An idea similar to the 'water tube' for Paris led, moreover, to former ENSCI (Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Création Industrielle*) student, Juan Lin, winning a ‘Star’ from the Observeur du design 10 awards, in the "long-term implementation" category.
In the heart of Southern megalopolises, the company Thuong Nhât (Daily Express) has just unveiled plans to create two 11-km-long river transport lines in Ho Chi Minh City. A company spokesman is confident that such an undertaking will attract tourists: "in large urban centres like London, Paris and Bangkok, around 50% of tourist use this means of transport. We hope that the rate of visitors using our "river buses" to visit the Southern megalopolis will represent 30% of our clientele".
Certain towns take the green aspect of this type of transport even further. The city of Monaco thus enjoys an electric water-bus, whose roof is covered with photovoltaic panels that provide it with between 15% and 20% of its energy requirements.
A project called "Navibus" is also currently under consideration in the town of Liège, in Belgium, in order to determine the feasibility of small boat transport lines with a system using electric or hybrid power.
The water-bus appears to be a trendy concept, one that gives towns a more pleasant appearance and that can potentially relaunch tourism.
This is an idea retained by the company DN&T, which is in charge of the "Navibus" initiative: "such a tool is ultimately a great touristic asset since it can offer river tours that allow people to discover the town from a different perspective. There are several reasons which have already convinced a great many cities (New York, Venice, Paris, London, Monaco, Lisbon...), and which explain the fast growth of this means of transport."
* a French national Institute exclusively devoted to industrial design
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