“#$%&” The Welland Canal.” That’s the sentiment I had moments ago when I read an article in the Detroit Free Press that expounded the trails of a cruise line that travels the Great Lakes. It sounds great, all except the part when the cruise ship skips Buffalo because it exits Lake Erie via the Welland Canal well before reaching this city (The Welland Canal is the same canal that helped to all but snuff out Buffalo’s freighter business back in the day).
Alas, all is not lost I suppose. Once Buffalo builds ports large enough to host these types of ships (Canalside was originally supposed to accommodate for this and then did not), it would not be that much of a detour to make a pit stop in Buffalo and then backtrack a ways (see map on DFP article).
In order for Buffalo to attract more interest from the Great Lakes Cruise Company, we need to be able to accommodate the larger ships, so it’s a moot point at this time At this juncture, the only party that could even remotely pull this sort of massive undertaking would be RiverWorks. If the developers were able to somehow dig out and rewater a couple of the old massive slips that once existed back in the days when expansive cruise ships did actually visit the Buffalo harbor. Hopefully, we will see that day again, and Buffalo will once more be a port for these types of shipping ventures.
Lead image: Saint Laurent – Great Lakes Cruise Company – See cruise itinerary and map from Montreal to Chicago – click here.