I really wanted to take a water bus in Venice. In fact, during a period of free time, a few friends and I were going to take it a single stop, just for the sake of riding one. But when we got to the station, I asked the woman at the ticket booth how much it would cost to go one stop. “Take taxi,” she said. “Water bus is €7,50.” Seriously??? That single-ride fare is absolutely ridiculous, especially considering it’s slightly more in US dollars! Needless to say, we didn’t ride the water bus, but here are some pictures of the boats and stations I saw.
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| The station near the bridge out of the city. |
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| A boat running on Route 2. |
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| The boat again. |
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| A nice-looking station. |
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| Oooh, countdown clocks! |
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| People entering the station. |
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| Another stop. |
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| The inside. |
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| And another stop. |
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| The entrance. |
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| I’m sorry, only one ticket machine but four vending machines??? That seems excessive. |
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| The ticket machine. |
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| Alas, ’twas €7,50 to go beyond this point. |
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| Another boat. |
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| A smaller stop… |
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| …and a boat picking up passengers there. |
Hi, I'm from Venice. Unfortunately here the tourists greately outnumber the residents… the service has to be sized for tourists, but since they do not pay taxes, the high fare is the only way to keep the service alive. You can pay the low fare if you register and buy your personal card (Venezia Unica), it costs 50€. This concept is not much different from WMATA SmartTrip, only a bit more expensive due to the special conditions of the service. Hope this will help on your next trip 🙂