Taking a traghetto in Venice is practical and cheap; only 2 Euros a ride. Locals take them, standing insouciantly amidships reading the Corriere della Sera and juggling with a caffè corretto.
Nobody sits down, unless they are tourists, and certainly there are no life jackets as the gondolier expertly weaves his (sometimes her) way through the traffic on the Grand Canal. Now Hammersmith Bridge is closed some enterprising parents of children at St Paul’s are ferrying them across the river. (4,000 pupils used the bridge every day until it was closed last month; peculiar as the school has about 1,000 pupils but perhaps they made multiple crossings.) The children wear life jackets over their uniforms and sit down. There is no river traffic as boats are not allowed to pass under the bridge. The trip takes about a minute and saves a long trip by car or bus over Putney Bridge or Chiswick Bridge. Sounds to me like the best of British improvisation in the Dunkirk spirit.
The Port of London Authority and the school don’t see it that way. The PLA huffs:
“The PLA intend to keep a careful watch over the part of the river where this has alleged to have taken place. These boats are not designed to carry passengers. We have spoken to the people responsible for this unsafe activity and advised them very clearly about the safety risks involved.”
Meanwhile Hammersmith & Fulham Council have a fix but they don’t have the money.
”Specialist engineers have put together shovel ready plans to fix the 133-year-old bridge. It will cost £46 million to stabilise it, which will make it safe for pedestrians, cyclists and river traffic. That work can be completed within nine months. It will cost up to £141 million to fully restore the bridge so it can be reopened to buses and motor vehicles – a similar amount to building a new bridge. There’s a quicker option to fully restore Hammersmith Bridge but that would cost £163 million.
A temporary bridge suitable for pedestrians and cyclists would cost £27.3 million. That would also take nine months to build but it wouldn’t solve the problems for river traffic. It costs £2.7 million a year simply to stop additional and dangerous deterioration.”
By now the whole school (at St Pauls and Latymer) would have joined the Rowing Club, no doubt: Everyone can get across without it being ferry. And has each school, or together, devised a competition for pupils to design and build an innovative river crossing? With no-one else messing about on the river it’ll be a good time to experiment and learn.
What do we need a bridge for, what kind of bridge? Have we not reached “peak car” (witness all the local traffic blockages)? What about using the Super Sewer drilling machines to magically extend the Hammersmith & City under the river to Barnes and onwards?