Municipality of Istanbul’s City Lines, just released the images of their new ferry design. Most of the ferries which were built in 70’s and 80’s were donated to other shore towns, where they will be used as public attractions, like cafes, restaurants and so on. But we have seen the previous examples of these donations were not kept as they were promised to. Such as S/S Inklap, one of the last steam ferries built in 1961. Her superstructure was changed so extremely and after a while the ship went beyond being a ship. Now her remains are sitting on land…
Şehir Hatları (City Lines) says that the new ships will look so beautiful on the bosphorus, but almost everyone is disgusted by the new design they released. The ships may be perfect technologically but to get used to them will be so hard for Istanbullers when you consider the current ferries take a huge part in Istanbul’s silhouette.
They say that in the first phase, there will be 4 ships to be built followed by 6 more. The ships will be double ended so there wont be a need for turn around manuever. This will save time. Şehir Hatları repeats two features of the ships all the time. Special ramps for disabled passengers and double ended design which will reduce manuever. They have a list of characteristics of the new ferry design as following.
- Double ended form
- Hydraulic ramps on both ends which provide safe boarding
- Hydraulic ramps for disabled passengers
- Double ended form will eliminate the need for turn around manuever which will save %25 time and fuel
- Large windows enabling panaromic view
- The docking style of the ships will allow the ships to use the piers more efficiently
- Low carbon emmisions
- Ships will be able to berth onto eachother (which was not possible by the default for the ferries which were built in 2008)
- Hydraulic, electronic and manuel locking system for the ramps
Well, although some features seem like good promises, there are some questions on peoples mind. Are they gonna be serving to island routes? How are they gonna behave on rough seas? Will Şehir Hatları respect the public opinion? What is going to happen to the classic ferries? These are all mistery…