Manchester’s first water taxi service has launched along the Bridgewater Canal between Castlefield, Sale and the Trafford Centre.

The brainchild of entrepreneur Steve Caldwell has been fine tuning the waxis since 2009 and today saw the first two weeks of what he has termed a soft launch to test out the two boats.

 Caldwell had initially planned to launch on the Manchester Ship Canal providing public transport services between the city centre and MediaCityU but works on the Ordsall Chord have for the moment scuppered those plans.

Instead the fleet will be operating morning and evening Mondays to Friday between Sale and Castlefield (including rush hour), and a circular route running from Castlefield to Old Trafford and onto the Trafford Centre. The fleet initially includes two boats, for seven and ten people respectively but there are plans for bigger boats.

The waxis have been created by Aintree Boats and are roughly half the size of a traditional narrow boat.The 4mph (6km/h) journey is free during the trial period ahead of a full launch on 21 November.

The boats will initially run during daylight hours but could eventually be in service from 7am – 10pm.

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