Cities like Amsterdam, Utrecht, London and Paris were built on water, yet largely stopped using it as a means of transport in the twentieth century. With urban densification, climate adaptation and zero-emission targets converging, water deserves a mature place in the urban mobility mix; not as a tourist sideshow, but as a functional, affordable and sustainable connection embedded in residents’ daily lives.
International examples (London’s Uber Boat, Gothenburg’s integrated ferries, Rotterdam’s electric shuttles, Istanbul’s electric water taxis) show water transit works when three conditions are met: full integration into the wider public transport system (ticketing, hubs, connections), high frequency (headways of 10–15 minutes maximum), and smart network design focused on corridors where water genuinely adds value, such as river crossings and links between districts that face long detours over land.
Closer to my home, opportunities remain untapped. Amsterdam has more than 200 kilometers of navigable waterways but uses them for fine-grained, functional public transport only sparingly. That said, the GVB ferries do carry 20 to 25 million passengers a year.
Sustainability requires nuance: boats use more energy per passenger-kilometer than trams, but electrification changes the equation, and water transit needs virtually no land take or heavy infrastructure — an advantage that grows as cities invest in climate-resilient blue structures.
The central warning concerns tourism. Venice proves water transit can be a city’s lifeline, but also shows what happens when tourism dominates. A business case that depends on visitor revenues — like Amsterdam’s proposed IJbaan cable car, with 60% of its income from tourism — is an attraction plan, not a transit plan. Transport value for residents must be the core, never a footnote.
Furthermore, urban water space is already congested and contested — by houseboats, leisure craft, freight, events, and, above all, its climate function. “First come, first served” no longer works. Cities need a “main water structure”: a spatial hierarchy for water, comparable to the green structure or cycling network, that determines which waterways serve climate adaptation, logistics, or transit. Rotterdam’s Wateratlas points the way.
The closing message: cities have the water structures; what they lack is the political courage and administrative resolve to govern them. Water was once the backbone of the European city. It can be again; but someone must dare to be the “water manager.”
Walther Ploos van Amstel.