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Increasing population growth in urban areas has led to significant problems, stretching the limits of existing urban transportation systems. While once playing a critical role in transport in the early development of cities, water transport has since declined sharply in relevance with increases in bridges, tunnels and the widespread proliferation of automobiles. But land based mass transit systems are often reaching capacity. These issues have led to a resurgence of interest in the use of urban ferry services as transport corridors along currently underutilised waterways. Cities such as Brisbane, New York, London, Gothenburg and Bangkok have operating urban ferry systems which play an important role in the transport functions of each city. In order to provide a better understanding of the operation of water transport services, their wider impact and the implications for their inclusion in future city planning, this thesis investigates key issues for planning this form of transport.

Urban linear ferry systems are an emerging form of public transport in cities worldwide. The travel behavior of passengers who used CityCat ferries in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, was investigated with data from 1,675,821 smart card fare transactions for ferry trips made over a 6-month period. Although services used small vessels and had only one main route, about 2.3% of all paid public transport journeys in Brisbane were made on CityCat and the related cross-river ferries. The ferries were used more for commuting and university trips on weekdays with significant patronage in the morning and afternoon peak periods. Use was consistent on weekend days. Although use was strong, most users were infrequent patrons; this use suggested that leisure travel was a significant component of the system. Key terminals with high use rates included those where transfer to cross-river ferry services was possible. The system offered single-stop cross-river travel at many points. However, only 15.8% of paid trips in March 2013 were made this way; 84.2% of trips continued farther up- or downriver. Integration with other buses and trains was significant; about 15% of all ferry journeys were linked to another mode of public transport. Additional investigation into how users access terminals and interact with other public transport modes is suggested. With expansion planned, the CityCat system could increase its contribution to public transport in Brisbane. Increasing the use frequency of the large pool of infrequent riders could increase patronage of the system. Refereed/Peer-reviewed