CHICAGO TO MICHIGAN CARFERRIES

[Anonymous]

Has anyone heard of the Lake Michigan carferry "Badger" or either of the other idle ex C&O carferries making Chicago to Western Michigan runs this summer.
My wife says she heard this and I have to agree there should be enough demand to warrant at least studing the economic feasability of such an operation. Perhaps other ports such as New Buffalo,Saugatuck or South Haven, Michigan could be considered, not just Ludington. [?][?][?][:D][:D][:D]

[CShaveRR]

One word for you, buddy: Fuggiddabaddit!

The Badger is active between Ludington and Manitowoc as a passenger/auto ferry. The City of Midland has already been cut down to a barge, and the Spartan is largely cannibalized to keep the Badger running.

What I have heard is that there's supposed to be a new cross-Lake service using a Hovercraft or something similar, making short work of a trip from Milwaukee to Muskegon. We'll see if that pans out.

I don't think that a ferry service from Chicago to anywhere would be economical in terms of time saved. For destinations like New Buffalo, South Haven, and Saugatuck, you're talking cruises (all of those are within a three-hour drive of Chicago, so you are deliberately planning on making a longer trip out of it!). Besides, I don't think that any of those ports you mentioned are capable of handling a ship the size of the ferries any more.

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

The new cross-lake service between Milwaukee and Muskegon is supposed to start sometime this spring using relatively conventional designs capable of at least 30 MPH. There appears to be a fair amount of indirect subsidy involved (Maritime Administration loans, municipally-owned docks, etc.) and probably not enough auto traffic. The "Milwaukee Clipper" worked this route previously until about the mid-1960's.

C&O and Ann Arbor operated their carferries primarily to move freight cars across Lake Michigan for a variety of reasons and the routes to Kewaunee were the only ones that carried mostly interchange traffic (to GB&W) as a Chicago bypass. Auto and passenger traffic were strictly sidelines since the boats were already operating to handle the freight traffic.

[Anonymous]

I went across Lake Michigan on the Badger in the 50s. I wasn't very old but it left enough of an impression on me that I remembered the name of the boat.