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Are water taxis on their way?

Newport Beach officials are eyeing the possibility of creating a water taxi service that would ferry tourists and pedestrians to restaurants and parks around Newport Harbor during the summer months, but some aren’t sold on the feasibility of the idea.

“I think it’s a good idea if we can figure out how to do it in an economical way,” said Newport Beach City Councilman Mike Henn, who heads up the city’s Economic Development Committee. “I’m hopeful we will find a way to do it. It would be very a nice enhancement for the businesses of our harbor and cut a little traffic and parking out of the mix.”

The water taxi concept is still in its early stages. City officials created an exploratory committee of local business leaders to look into the possibility of creating a water taxi service earlier this year.

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The committee is now in the process of looking into the viability of offering a water taxi service during the summer months in Newport Beach.

“What we’ve found is that there is some interest from the public for such a service, but whether or not that public interest is sufficient to warrant a private enterprise or other entity to provide the service is yet to be determined,” said Richard Luehrs, president of the Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce.

Luehrs also sits on the water taxi exploratory committee.

The cost of the developing a water taxi in Newport Beach could vary largely on what kind of service the city wants, Luehrs said.

A shuttle service that runs on a loop around the harbor is bound to be more costly than a taxi that people can call on their cell phone to come pick them up, he said.

“There have been services that have run in the past that people have tried to do just from a private enterprise perspective, but they just break even,” Luehrs said. “For the money, the cost outweighed the benefit of providing the service. There have been a couple of different attempts to do it, but they just couldn’t pencil out.”

Water taxi services in other California harbors typically rely on some sort of government subsidy to keep them going, Luehrs said.

A summer water taxi service operated in Marina del Rey by Hornblower Cruises, which runs June through September and costs passengers $1 to jet to one of seven stops around the marina, depends on funding from Los Angeles County.

The water taxi exploratory committee in Newport Beach is in the process of wrapping up its findings and should be ready to present them to the city in the next few months, Luehrs said.


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