Cleveland Press

A deal to launch a ferry service across Lake Erie from Cleveland to Canada may be in the works.

If it goes through, the ferry would dock near the Cleveland Browns Stadium and go back and forth to Port Stanley, Ontario. The boat could be in operation by 2013 and would transport people, cars and a small number of trucks. Port Stanley officials want to limit the amount of trucks in order to focus on tourism, not industry.

The fare would run $30 per person for a voyage that lasts about 3 ½ hours.

Google Port Stanley. It seems to be a charming, but very little lakefront town. It looks like a smaller version of Vermillion, but with a better beach area. From the looks of their tourism website, there doesn’t seem to be much to do. Is it worth a seven hour boat ride for Clevelanders? Probably not when Put in Bay or Kelly’s Island is a closer destination.

However, Cleveland could definitely benefit from increased tourism from Ontario. It would be an easy way for Ontario residents to experience a new city and check out the new casinos, the Rock Hall and other museums and take in a sporting event.

Close to $7 million in federal government grants have been set aside for ships and a terminal for the first Northeast Ohio port city to settle on a ferry deal.

The ferry will be on a two-year trial. A similar ferry project that connected Rochester, N.Y., with Toronto failed miserably a few years back. Rochester officials hoped it would turn their city into a tourist destination, but that never materialized. The operation was cancelled after 80 days, after the ferry service racked up nearly $2 million in debt.