• @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      206 months ago

      A ferry is dense. It packs a lot of people into a small space on boats that were made to effectively haul people between two docks at a relatively short distance.

      A cruise ship is huge, and given the amount of amenities they host, the density of PASSENGERS on board is vastly lower, yet has a lot of added weight from service crew, pools, dining halls, water slides, slot machines and what not.

      Ferries can be electric too. Never heard of an electric cruise ship before.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      19
      edit-2
      6 months ago

      There is many small ferries in the UK which are basically a floating platform that get’s dragged through the water on a cable. If you run that off an electric motor those can be quite efficent.

      Maybe they are thinking about those.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        46 months ago

        What is producing the electricity? If it’s clean energy, maybe. It shouldn’t be “thinking about those,” but rather trying to compare similar load to energy cost per person. If the underground, rail, etc can’t beat something that has to push through water that doesn’t really make sense.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          10
          edit-2
          6 months ago

          What is producing the electricity?

          That question can be applied to all the electric forms of transportation of the chart though.

          But if we assume it’s the about the same energy mix as for the tube or trams, then it isn’t that surprising. Volecity is major factor in the drag equation and ferries move very slow but have high capacity, so even with the additional drag, moving on cables should be closer to rail efficency than to a ship which has to use propellers.

          It’s still odd that it’s below those other two, but I would have assumed they are in the same ballpark.