Locale | Baltimore Inner Harbor |
---|---|
Waterway | Baltimore Inner Harbor |
Transit type | Water taxi |
Owner | Kevin Plank |
Operator | Sagamore Ventures |
Began operation | 4 July 1975 (41 years ago) |
No. of lines | 5 |
No. of vessels | 13 |
No. of terminals | 17 |
Daily ridership | 16,000,000 over 25 years |
Website | http://www.thewatertaxi.com/ Baltimore Water Taxi |
Baltimore Water Taxi is a water taxi service offering sightseeing and transportation service mainly to points along the Baltimore Inner Harbor.
The Baltimore Water Taxi (BWT) was founded by Edward M. Kane (1931–2003), and for many years known as Ed Kane's Water Taxi. In 2010 it was sold and renamed.
While tourism is the traditional use of these taxis, there are increasing efforts to use them as commuter transportation. Here one of the barriers is getting from the dock to the office, and Ed Kane's was one of the first to offer extra ground transportation for this purpose. The city of Baltimore is encouraging this by subsidizing some new routes, some operated by Ed Kane's, but this has in turn been criticized as an inefficient use of taxpayer money.
In 2016, the Baltimore Water Taxi service was purchased by Sagamore Ventures, operated by Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank. Under the new ownership, the Baltimore Water Taxi has plans to expand transportation service to Port Covington in South Baltimore.
The BWT has five taxi routes and one Harbor Connector route that circulate the Patapsco River from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
As of 2016, the system has five tax lines with seventeen stops throughout the Inner Harbor.